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TheJTrue  View  of  the 

Present  Persecution 

in  France 


AN  APPEAL  TO  THE 
UNBIASED  JUDGMENT  OF 
THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE 


\ 


Lecture  by 
REV.  JOSEPH  C[SASIA,  S.  J. 

/I 

SECOND     EDITION 

{For  Free  Distribution) 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  CALIFORNIA 
1907 

THE  MYSELLROLLINS  €Q.,  12   i'.4  ''  ST. 


'PXiS3d 
/fo7 


LECTURE 

Extracts  from  the  French  Separation  Law 

Encyclical  Letters  of  Pius  X 

Letter  of  the  French  Bishops 

The  Facts 

Appendix 


865948 


Approved  by  the  Ecclesiastical  Authority 

Imprimatur,  PATRICK  W.  RIORDAN 

Archbishop  of  San  Francisco,   California 

February,  1907 


The  True  View  of  the  Present  Persecution 

in  France 

Lecture  by  Rev.  JOSEPH  G.  Sasia,  S.  J. 

[Delivered  in  St.  Ignatius  Church  January  13,  1907.] 


Jesus  Christ  says  in  His  Gospel :  '"Blessed  are  they  that  suffer 
persecution  for  justice  sake :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven."    Matthew  V.  10  et  seq. 

The  false  reports  studiously  sent  forth  by  the  French  Govern- 
ment, both  through  the  telegraphic  cable  and  the  mail,  in  order 
to  mislead  public  opinion  regarding  the  present  conflict  between 
the  Catholic  Church  and  the  State  in  France,  and  which  have 
been  published  broadcast  by  not  a  few  secular  journals  of  this 
country,  make  it  imperative,  in  the  interests  of  truth  and  justice, 
that  a  correct  statement  of  the  real  situation  be  laid  before  our 
Catholic  people,  to  enable  them  to  form  a  just  idea  of  the  present 
persecution  in  that  unhappy  land,  and  to  arouse  their  sympathy 
on  behalf  of  our  sutl'ering  brethren.  As  we  shall  see  in  the 
sequel,  the  whole  truth  is  reduced  to  this,  that  whilst  on  the 
one  hand,  the  French  Government  and  its  abettors  represent  the 
present  crisis  as  a  war  of  the  Pope  against  France,  on  the  other 
hand  facts  prove  beyond  all  doubt  that  it  is  in  reality  the  war 
of  the  French  despotic  Rulers  against  the  Catholic  Church.  To 
understand  well  the  character  of  this  struggle  and  to  justify 
the  attitude  of  the  Sovereign  Pontift'  toward  thfe  present  iniquitous 
legislation,  we  must  briefl}^  recall  some  Catholic  principles 
regarding  the  constitution  of  the  Church,  as  established  by  Jesus 
Christ  her  Founder,  and  which  no  earthly  potentate  can  abolish, 
change  or  modify.  God  has  divided  the  government  of  mankind 
between  two  powers:  the  spiritual  authority  of  the  Church,  and 
the  temporal  power  of  civil  rulers.  The  former  is  chiefly  de- 
signed for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  men :  for  their  heavenly  inter- 
ests ;  the  latter  is  particularly  intended  for  an  earthly  end.  the 
temporal  and  material  prosi)erity  of  society  in  this  world.  The 
two  powers  are  indeed  essentially  distinct,  but  they  are  by  no 
means  hostile  to  each  other;  far  from  it:  they  have  reciprocal 
duties,  the  performance  of  which  affords  them  a  mutual  support, 
so  long  as  they  work  harmoniously  together.  Thus,  if  the  tem- 
poral power,  which  is  in  duty  bound  to  protect  the  liberty  of 
its  citizens  in  the  conscientious  discharge  of  their  religious 
obligations,  causes  the  spiritual  authority  to  be  respected,  and 
refrains  from  meddling  with  the  things  beyond  its  competence, 
the  spiritual  authority  on  its  side  recognizes  in  the  temporal 
rulers  a  power  that  comes  from  God,  and,  by  imposing  on  its 
subjects  both  interior  and  exterior  submission,  vindicates  the 
majesty  of  the  law,  secures  the  triumph  of  social  order,  and 
the  stability  of  kingdoms,  empires  and  republics.  Hence,  the 
Catholic  Church,  true  to  her  mission,  never  ceases  to   preach 

3 


and  inculoate  ithosfclesgoD?  of  obedience  to  civil  princes,  which 
the  Apostle  St.  Paiil  enjoins  in  his  letter  to  the  Romans, 
ch.  13 :  V.  1.  2. :  "Let  every  soul  be  subject  to  higher  powers  for 
there  is  no  power  but  from  God,  and  those  that  are,  are  ordained 
of  God.  Therefore,  he  that  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  tlie  ordi- 
nance of  God.  And  they  that  resist,  purchase  to  themselves  damna- 
tion." The  undeniable  superiority  of  the  spiritual  power  over 
the  temporal  can  easily  be  perceived  by  considering  its  end. 
Whilst  civil  society  has  for  its  direct  object  the  securing  to  men 
of  material  prosperity,  and  the  development  of  their  natural 
faculties  in  the  physical,  intellectual. and  moral  order,  Religious 
Society,  viz:  the  Church,  has  for  its  special  end  to  enable  men 
to  reach  perfect  and  eternal  happiness.  To  establish  and  spread 
the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth,  to  labor  for  the  moral  and 
supernatural  perfection  of  man,  to  lead  him  to  his  supreme 
destiny,  submission  to  God's  holy  will  in  this  life,  and  ever- 
lasting happiness  in  the  next;  all  this  evidently  constitutes  a 
mission  immensel}'^  superior  to  that  which  belongs  to  civil  power; 
a  mission  as  superior  to  that  of  the  State  as  Heaven  is  above 
earth  and  eternity  is  above  time,  a  divine  mission  entrusted  to 
the  Church  by  her  Founder,  the  Eternal  Son  of  God.  Hence, 
to  attempt  to  subject  the  Church  to  any  other  power  than  that 
v,hich  God  has  established,  would  be  to  strive  to  frustrate  the 
divine  plan  and  overthrow  the  work  of  God  Himself.  Now, 
this  is  exactly  what  the  French  Government  is  attempting  to  do : 
to  invert  and  upset  the  divine  order  by  subjecting  the  spiritual 
authority  of  the  Church  to  the  temporal  power  of  the  State, 
by  subjecting  God  to  Caesar.  In  the  face  of  this  unwarrantable 
usurpation,  it  is  plain  that  neither  the  Supreme  Pontitl",  nor 
the  French  Bishops,  nor,  in  fact,  any  Catholic  could  submit 
to  become  the  slaves  of  Caesarism,  and  surrender  their  sacred 
rights  of  spiritual  independence  in  what  belongs  to  the  eternal 
interests  of  their  soul.  Outsiders  talk  very  glibly  of  the  duty 
of  obej'ing  the  law  of  the  land,  and  French  Catholics  are 
represented  as  rebels  to  the  State  and  consi)irators  against  the 
Republic.  But  here  let  me  ask,  is  every  law,  that  an  unscrupulous 
government  chooses  to  make,  to  be  obeyed?  Is  (hero  to  be  no 
limit  to  the  exercise  of  civil  authority  in  legislating  over  its 
subjects?  Yes,  there  is  a  limit:  it  has  been  placed  by  God  Him- 
.self,  the  Supreme  Lawgiver  of  the  Universe,  and  it  is  this:  No 
law,  that  is  opposed  to  the  Supreme  law  of  right  and  wrong,  to 
the  Divine  commandments,  has  any  binding  force,  and  as  no 
legislator  has  power  to  command  what  is  wrong,  so  no  citizen 
has,  under  sucjh  circumstances,  the  obligation  to  obey.  For  the 
sake  of  social  order,  and  l^ecause  there  is  no  possibility  of  legal 
redress,  we  may  be  compelled,  as  the  martyrs  of  old,  to  suffer 
wrong,  but  no  human  power  has  (he  right  to  force  us  to  do 
wrong.  Neither  the  French  Ciuimbers,  nor  the  Parliament  of 
Enghmd,  nor  the  Congress  of  (he  United  States,  have  the  power 
to  enac(  hiws  contrary  (o  (he  siipicme  rule  and  s(:indar(l  of  right 
and  jusdcc,  (lie  liighci'  law  of  God,  inimu(ubk'  as  God  Himself. 
A  distinf,Miislu'd  American  jui'ist  thus  tletined  civil  law:  "Law  is 
a  rule  of  conduct  prescribed  by  the  S(ate  to  its  citizens,  command- 
inf(  what  is  right,  and  prohii)itinf;  what  is  wrouj^:. "  According 
(o    (his   definition,   which    is    perfectly   conformable   to   ethical 

4 


principles,  to  determine  in  practice  wiiat  is  right  and  what  is 
wrong-  we  have  but  to  compare  human  prescriptions,  or  commands, 
with  the  supreme  hvw  of  rectitude,  the  divine  hiw.  With  this 
standard  before  us  we  learn  wliat  to  think  of  the  French  Separa- 
tion Law  enacted  by  legishitors,  wliose  openly  avowed  purpose, 
as  we  sha'll  see  in  the  sequel,  is  to  crush  Catholicism,  and  banish 
Christianity  itself  from  the  land,  thus  opposing  tlie  most  ])eremp- 
tory  injunctions  of  God  Himself,  the  Supreme  Lawgiver  of 
mankind.  So  long  as  the  civil  government  confines  itself  within 
its  legitimate  sphere,  it  will  find  no  more  loyal  and  devoted 
subjects  than  Catholics,  Avhose  Church  imposes  upon  them  in 
God's  name  the  sacred  duty  of  docility  and  submission  to  civil 
authority  in  ever\'thing  that  is  not  contrary  to  the  Law  of  God. 
But  when  political  rulers  break  through  their  boundaries  and 
attempt  to  trample  under  foot  the  rights  of  conscience  and  the 
Law  of  God,  then  all  upright  men  must  admit  that  obedience 
would,  in  such  cases,  be  mere  cringing  slavery,  perfidy  and 
apostasy,  to  which  death  itself  must,  at  all  times,  be  preferred. 
This  is  precisely  what  the  Rulers,  or  rather  Misrulers  of  the 
French  Republic  have  done  during  the  last  thirty-five  years, 
and  the  climax  of  tyranny  and  iniquity  was  reached  by  the  recent 
enactment  of  the  so-called  Separation  LaAv,  another  name  for 
the  official  oppression  and  spoliation  of  the  Church  of  God.  By 
this  law  the  Bishops  and  Priests  are  ordered  to  give  up  all 
control  and  management  of  everything  connected  with  Church 
property  and  religious  worship.  But  let  us  see  more  in  detail 
what  the  Law  of  Separation  and  the  Associations  of  Worship 
resulting  from  its  enforcement  were  intended  to  accomplish. 

1.  The  members  of  these  Associations  shall  be  chosen  chiefly 
from  the  laity  and  they  might  be  at  heart  hostile  to  the  Church, 
such  as  Atheists,  Socialists,  Freemasons,  for  the  law  grants  this 
privilege  to  all  its  citizens.  Bishops  and  Priests,  it  is  true,  are 
not  excluded  from  membership,  but,  besides  being  placed  on 
a  level  with  lay  associates,  by  the  very  fact  of  becoming  members, 
they  would  seal  their  own  doom  of  slavery  and  spoliation,  as 
they  will  then  be  stripped  of  all  authority. 

2.  These  Associations  or  Committees  will  have  complete  con- 
trol over  the  finances,  emoluments  and  property  of  each  parish, 
church  and  diocese,  being  responsible"  for  their  administration 
only  to  the  State.     (Docuuient  I..  Articles  4,  7,  18.) 

3.  Thej'^  are  moreover  authorized  to  choof;e  and  appoint 
Ministers  of  Avorship,  to  determine  their  functions,  to  designate 
the  time  and  condition  of  religious  worship,  to  regulate  the 
administration  of  the  Sacraments,  and  everything  else  concerning 
discipline  and  doctrine  itself,  thus  ignoring  the  existence  of  the 
Bishops'  authority,  who  alone  have,  by  divine  appointment,  the 
right  to  govern  the  Church  of  God  according  to  the  inspired 
words  of  St.  Paul,  who  thus  speaks  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
ch.  XX.  28.:  "Take  heed 'to  yourselves,  and  to  the  whole  flock, 
over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  placed  you  Bishops,  to  rule  the 
Church  of  God,  which  He  (Christ)  hath  purchased  with  His 
own  Blood."     (Articles  18,  19.) 

4.  Wnen  rival  Associations  shall  claim  the  right  to  use  the 
same  Church — a  contingency  foreseen  by  the  Law — ,  the  council 
of  State  is  to  be  the  Supreme  Tribunal  appointed  to  settle  all 


such  disputes  without  appeal.  Hence  the  Catholic  law-abiding 
members  of  a  given  Association  approved  by  the  Government, 
may,  at  any  time,  be  ousted  and  driven  from  the  Church  to  make 
place  for  their  rivals,  a  Committee  of  men  bitterly  opposed  to 
Catholicism  and  Christianity  itself.      (Article  8.) 

5.  What  provision  did  the  Law  make  if  the  Church  sliould 
refuse  to  submit,  and  should  reject  the  Associations  of  Worships? 
In  that  case  no  public  worship  would  be  allowed,  and  all  Church 
property  would  be  seized  by  the  State.  With  consummate  skill 
the  framers  of  this  iniquitous  law  strove  to  make  it  read  like 
another  Magna  Carta — a  charter  of  liberty  for  the  Church, — but 
all,  except  the  willfully  blind,  see  that  it  is  but  an  instrument  of 
slavery.  To  the  surprise  and  amazement  of  the  French  Govern- 
ment the  whole  Hierarchy  of  France,  86  Bishops,  in  obedience 
to  the  Vicar  of  Christ  refused  to  accept  the  Separation  Law; 
hence  of  the  40,000  Associations,  for  which  the  Bill  provided, 
not  one  has  been  attempted  by  any  French  Priest  in  good  stand- 
ing, and  the  wicked  scheme  of  the  Lawgivers  of  creating  schisms 
by  setting  the  laity  against  the  clergy  has  utterly  failed.  The 
Government  never  expected  that  the  Church  Avould  meet  the 
situation  so  courageously  and  with  such  self-restraint.  The 
civil  power  was  prepared  to  fight  and  put  down  with  severe 
coercive  measures,  hostilities  that  failed  to  appear,  as  the 
Catholics  under  the  leadership  of  their  Bishops  confined  them- 
selves to  protests  and  passive  resistance  insisting  on  their  rights 
as  French  citizens  to  have  a  law  that  will  not  deny  to  them  in 
practice  the  assurance  it  gives  them  in  principle.  In  other  words, 
the  Catholic  clergy  and  people  insist  on  the  honest  interpreta- 
tion and  execution  of  the  firs,t  article  of  the  Separation  Law, 
which  reads  as  follows:  "The  Republic  assures  liberty  of  con- 
science. It  guarantees  the  free  exercise  of  religion  with  no 
restriction  save  such  only  as  public  order  requires." 

"The  Republic  assures  liberty  of  conscience,"  a  trumped  up 
rhetorical  phrase,  whose  meaning,  in  the  light  of  present  facts, 
we  are  at  a  loss  to  comprehend.  For  we  ma}'  ask,  "Does  the 
Republic  intend  to  assure  to  the  French  people  interior,  or  ex- 
terior liberty  of  conscience?  If  it  means  the  interior,  then  the 
expression  is  a  mere  stupidity,  for,  everybod}^  knows  that  internal 
acts  are  entirely  beyond  the  control  of  any  created  power.  Avhat- 
ever  it  be.  If,  on  the  contrary,  external  liberty  is  meant,  then 
those  legislators  have  uttered  a  barefaced  lie,  as  it  appears  t'rom 
the  next  sentence,  which  guarantees  the  free  exercise  of  worship 
under  the  sole  restrictions  required  by  public  order.  Pray,  how 
many,  think  you,  are  the  sole  restrictions?  Not  less  than  44,  that 
is  as  many  as  are  the  articles  of  the  law  itself.  Is  not  this  an 
unpardonable  insult  to  the  whole  nation? 

i^nabh'  to  extricate  themselves  from  the  absurd  and  chaotic 
condition,  to  which  they  have  reduced  tbeii*  country,  and  too 
proud  to  report  to  a  submission,  that  would  bring  about  the  (h»\vn- 
fall  of  the  ministry,  in  order  to  make  tlieir  stupid  and  unjust  hnv 
work,  they  had  hitely  recourse  to  another  subterfuge.  They 
framed  a  new  Bill,  by  which  it  is  ])rovi(led  that  if  any  two  per- 
sons applied  for  permission  to  hold  jmblic  religious  service, 
according  to  the  law  of  1881  and  18!)1,  leave  would  be  granted 
for  a  year  on  certain  specified  conditions.    Moreover  the  notoi'ious 

6 


Minister  of  Worship  took  it  upon  himself  to  issue  a  circular 
containing  what  he  calls  liberal  concessions  intended  to  pacify 
the  Catholics.  But  in  conformity  to  instructions  received  from 
the  Supreme  Pontiff,  these  so-called  concessions  were  positively 
rejected  b}^  the  French  Bishops;  first,  because  they  are  absolutely 
illegal,  as  Briand  had  no  authority  whatever  from  the  French 
Constitution  to  modify,  change,  or  annul  any  Parliamentary 
Law ;  secondly,  on  account  of  their  precarious  condition,  as  his 
successor  or  he  himself,  in  a  different  frame  of  mind,  may  send 
out  another  circular  abrogating  the  one  of  today ;  thirdly,  because 
the  conditions  required  for  divine  Avorship  in  said  circular  are 
absolutely  intolerable,  as  it  evidently  appears  from  the  following 
supposition,  that  may  be  verified  any  da3^  Suppose,  for  instance, 
that  two  Socialists  are  present  during  Mass  at  Notre  Dame 
Cathedral,  or  in  any  other  church  in  France,  and  create  a  disturb- 
ance. What  happens?  Just  this.  There  is  a  policeman  present 
to  represent  the  Government.  He  notices  the  trouble,  rises  to 
his  feet,  and  proclaims  in  a  loud  voice  that  the  assembly  must 
dissolve  in  order  to  protect  public  order.  Then  the  Bishop  or 
Priest  must  leave  the  altar,  and  the  people  have  to  disperse, 
a  scene  that  may  be  repeated  at  any  time,  and  during  any  other 
religious  function.  Would  not  this  be  a  gross  outrage  to  religion, 
and  could  the  Catholics  of  France  submit  to  such  indignities? 

With  the  exception  of  the  anti-Catholic  Legislation  in  England 
under  Henry  VIII  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  I  do  not  think  that  ever 
a  national  Parliament  deliberately  proceeded  to  perpetrate,  in 
the  name  of  the  law  so  colossal  a  crime,  an  infamy  deserving 
the  stern  rebuke  of  all  lovers  of  freedom  and  justice  throughout 
the  world.  All  admit  that  the  most  odious  and  contemptible 
creature  is  the  bully,  who  plays  the  tyrant  toward  the  weak. 
But  still  more  intolerable  is  a  bullying  nation  that  picks  a  quarrel 
with  defenseless  citizens  with  the  base  intent  of  seizing  their 
possessions,  if  they  refuse  to  submit  to  its  iniquitous  bidding. 
This  is  what  the  Rulers  of  the  French  Republic  are  now  doing 
against  the  clergy  and  Catholics  in  France.  The  American 
people,  at  least  a  large  number  of  them,  believe  that  the  French 
Separation  Law  is  merely  intended  to  place  the  Church  in  France 
in  the  same  position  as  the  Church  in  the  United  States.  This 
is  a  gross  mistake.  The  French  law  means  slavery  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  liberty  on  the  part  of  the  Government  to  hold  her 
under  its  heel  and  tyrannize  over  her  Ministers.  In  other 
Avords,  Separation  of  the  Church  from  the  State  in  America 
means  liberty  and  justice,  in  France  it  means  servitude  and 
oppression.  It  is  not  separation  that  the  Holy  Father  is  repudi- 
ating, but  tyranny  in  the  guise  of  liberty.  Hence  it  Avas  imperative 
for  him  to  resist,  and  order  the  French  clergy  not  to  submit  to 
a  law  derogatory  alike  to  divine  and  human  rights;  a  law  striking 
at  the  very  root  of  Christianity,  and  which  has  shocked  the  moral 
sense  of  every  righteous  man  in  the  civilized  Avorld.  (See 
Appendix  Notes  A.  B.  C.)  The  persecutors  sought  to  conquer 
the  Ciiu.rch  by  confronting  her  with  the  dilemma,  either  en- 
slavement to  the  State,  or  confiscation.  The  French  Hierarchy, 
Bishops  and  Priests  in  obedience  to  Rome  chose  the  latter  alter- 
native, and  faced  persecution  rather  than  to  betray  their  trust 
and  sacrifice  the  inalienable  rights  of  God   and   His   Church. 

7 


All  honor  to  the  brave  clergy  of  F'rance  who,  as  the  Saturday 
Review  of  London  writes,  "are  fighting  the  battle  of  Christen- 
dom."* On  this  aeeo.unt  the  whole  world  is  witnessing  today 
outrages,  that  should  earn  for  the  present  Rulers  of  France 
the  unmitigated  scorn  and  contempt  of  all  mankind.  The  condi- 
tion of  affairs  in  France,  Avhen  once  properly  understood  in 
America,  cannot  fail  to  arouse  feelings  of  the  greatest  indignation 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  Large  meetings 
are  now  held  in  the  principal  cities  of  the  LTnion  to  protest  in 
the  name  of  justice  against  the  persecuting  policy  of  the  French 
Govennnent.  New  York.  **R<)stou.  Phihidelpliia.  Wasliiiiirton, 
Chicago,  in  large  public  assemblies,  consisting  both  of  Catholics 
and  non-Catholics,  have  raised  their  voice  and  passed  resolutions 
condemnatory  of  the  high-handed  iniquities  of  the  French  Re- 
public. The  Knights  of  Columbus,  the  brave  sons  of  Erin,  the 
Hibernians,  the  Young  Men's  Institute,  and  other  Catholic 
Societies  are  to  be  put  on  record  as  uncompromising  adversaries 
of  the  religious  persecution  now  raging  against  the  Catholic 
Church  in  France.  The  American  people,  irrespective  of  religious 
creeds,  love  liberty  and  grant  to  all  perfect  freedom  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  conscience.  In  France 
there  is  indeed  a  loud  profession  of  freedom,  but  stern  facts 
prove  that  it  is  mere  empty  sound  and  a  cloak  of  the  most  cruel 
oppression.  On  the  granite  pillars  of  the  great  Cathedral  of 
Notre  Dame  in  Paris,  now  confiscated  by  the  State,  I  saW'  myself 
emblazoned  in  large  letters  the  motto,  '"Liberty,  Fraternity  and 
Equalitj^"  but  in  the  light  of  present  events  those  words  are  a- 
sheer  mockery,  and  find  no  echo  in  the  hearts  of  those  unprincip- 
led legislators,  worthy  imitators  of  the  revolutionary  Jacobins, 
that  engraved  them  114  years  ago.  As  interpreted  by  recent 
facts,  if  they  mean  anything,  they  stand  for  slavery,  tyranny 
and  terrorism.  We  are  now-  prepared  to  justify  the  attitude  of 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  his  uncompromising  refusal  to  submit. 
The  Pope  is  a  great  lover  of  peace,  for  he  is  the  Vicar  of  Him, 
who  is  the  Prince  of  Peace;  but  there  is  one  thing  he  loves  far 
more  and  that  is  justice,  and  loyalty  to  Him,  whose  Vicar  he  is. 
He  has  done  all  that  it  was  possible  to  do  to  conciliate  the 
French  Government  and  smooth  the  way;  but  when  asked  to  do 
wrong,  to  sacrifice  the  essential  liberties  of  the  Church,  to  sanc- 
tion iniquitous  laws  by  his  pontifical  authority,  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  reply, — Non  possumus — we  cannot  do  it.  In  England,  750 
years  ago,  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  died  a  martyr  in  defense 
of  the  lil^erties  of  the  Church;  and  Pope  Pius  X.  breathes  the 
same  splendid  magnanimous  spirit  today.  Whatever  turn  events 
may  take  in  France,  of  this  we  nuiy  be  quite  sure  that  the  reign- 
ing Pontifi'  will  never  betray  his  charge,  for  if  he  is  as  gentle 
as  a  lamb,  he  is,  at  the  same  time,  as  firm  as  a  rock.  Moreover, 
in  this  attitude  of  manly  resistance  to  usurping  despots  the  Pope 
is  but  following  a  very  ancient  precedent,  the  example  of  St. 
Peter,  Christ's  first  Vicar.  The  Jewish  magistrates,  as  wc  read 
in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  ch.  IV.,  had  forbiddcyi  the  Ajiostles 
to  preach  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  ("!hi-ist  on  the  i)lea  that  by  so  doing 
they  were  disturbing  the  j)ublic  peace.  A\niat  did  Peter,  the 
Prince  of  the  Apostles,  do?     Did  he  quietly  subnnt  to  that  im- 

♦(Seo  .\pi)eiuli.\  Note  V.)  "iSi-c  Ai>|>oiiilix  Ndlc  K.i 

8 


warranted  exercise  of  authority?  Did  he  meekly  obey  the  law  of 
the  land?  No — he  replied,  as  every  true  Christian  should — ,  "We 
ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  man."  And  he  continued  to 
preach  the  Gospel  of  Christ  till  the  close  of  his  glorious  career 
by  the  martyrdom  of  the  cross.  A  large  volume  would  be  needed 
to  recount  the  iniquities  perpetrated  by  that  Republic  unworthy 
of  the  name  in  the  last  thirty-five  years,  during  which  long 
series  of  legislative  measures  were  framed  against  the  Church, 
not  one  in  her  favor.  One  of  the  first  steps  in  the  sacrilegious 
policy  of  spoliation  and  plunder  was  the  abolition  and  expulsion 
of  all  religious  orders  and  congregations  comprising  not  less 
than  KiO.OOO  members.  Then  followed,  as  a  conseciiience,  the 
closing  of  1G,000  Catholic  schools  taught  by  Religious,  which 
were  replaced  by  Atheistic  State  Institutions,  Avhere  the  French 
youths  of  both  sexes  are  receiving  an  infidel  education  consisting 
mainly  in  the  hatred  of  Christ  and  His  Church,  and  totally 
devoid  of  all  moral  influence.  To  throw  dust  into  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  the  Government  announced  that  the  Religious  Com- 
munities would  be  allowed  to  resume  their  position  and  be 
recognized  as  legitimate  bodies  if  they  applied  to  the  State  for 
official  authorization.  Nearly  r)00  of  them,  allured  by  such 
promises,  presented  their  aj)plication  in  due  form.  What  was 
the  result?  They  were  all  rejected  in  a  lump  without  discussion; 
the  Priests  and  Brothers,  men  and  women,  were  all  turned  out 
into  the  street,  with  no  provision  made  for  a  crust  of  bread,  a 
shelter  from  the  storm  or  a  night's  lodging.  The  gentle  Sisters 
ministering  to  the  sick,  the  poor  and  unfortunate  of  every  class 
of  society  were  expelled  from  the  country  because,  as  it  was  said 
in  Parliament,  they  are  enemies  of  the  Republic  and  a  peril  to 
the  nation,  that  is  bound  to  defend  itself.  How  feeble,  how 
powerless  must  be  that  boastful  Republic  which  is  in  dread  of 
a  downfall  from  an  army  of  defenseless  nuns !  The  harmless, 
innocent,  virtuous  nuns,  veritable  angels  of  mercy,  are  driven 
out  from  their  homes  and  country  at  any  cost,  whilst  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  vile  prostitutes,  that  infect  the  great  cities  of 
France  and  make  it  a  cesspool  of  national  corruption,  remain 
unmolested  to  continue  their  diabolical  work  of  moral  destruction. 
Thus  was  perpetrated  one  of  the  most  brutal  governmental  crim>es 
of  modern  times.  One  iniquity  followed  another  in  rapid  suc- 
cession. It  was  ordered  that  the  nan)e  of  God  should  be  stricken 
out  of  official  oaths  in  the  courts,  thus  depriving  them  of  all 
sanction  and  significance;  all  religious  emblems,  crucifixes,  holy 
pictures,  were  removed  from  the  cemeteries,  the  halls  of  justice 
and  public  schools;  and,  to  shoAV  their  cynical  contempt  and 
satanical  hatred,  the  order  of  those  profanations  was  issued  on 
Good  Friday,  a  few  years  ago,  in  1804.  Then  came  the  abolition 
of  the  Concordat  concluded  between  Napoleon  and  Pius  VII.,  in 
1801,  a  solemn  bilateral  contract,  which  could  not  in  justice 
be  abolished  without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  both  contract- 
ing parties.  AVith  an  impudence  setting  at  defiance  all  the  prin- 
ciples of  international  law,  the  French  law-givers  tore  it  to  pieces 
without  condescending  to  give  official  notice  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontiir.  In  consequence  of  the  abolition  of  that  national  pledge 
there  followed  the  withdrawal  of  State  support  from  the  clergy, 
another  high-handed  robbery,  an  official  repudiation  of  a  just 

9 


debt.  The  Revoliitionaiy  Government  of  1789  had  confiscated 
four  hundred  million  worth  of  projDert}',  fully  equal  to  $80,000,- 
000,  possessed  by  the  Church  of  France,  being  bequests  and  foun- 
dations for  religious  worship,  for  the  help  of  the  poor,  and  the 
Christian  education  of  youth,  gathered  during  the  space  of  more 
than  1000  years.  Most  of  this  property  wa^  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder  to  fill  the  coffers  of  the  State.  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  who 
had  seized  the  reins  of  government,  seeing  that  he  could  not 
ni1o  .lie  people  without  rolicrion.  nddro^^f^d  himself  to  the  Pope 
in  order  to  have  the  Catholic  religion  reestablished.  As  it  was 
practically  impossible  for  tlic  Church  to  recover  the  property 
confiscated  and  sold,  the  Concordat  between  Napoleon  and  Pius 
VII.  included  a  just,  though  unequal  restitution,  the  paying  to 
the  Church  by  the  nation  of  a  perpetual  annuity  as  a  compensa- 
tion, or  indemnity,  though  small  indeed,  for  the  confiscated 
property  taken  from  her.  Ou  this  account  the  withdrawal  of 
State  support  from  the  Church  is  a  flagrant  act  of  injustice 
and  a  repudiation  of  a  just  debt;  an  act  unworthy  of  any  civilized 
nation,  and  which  can  find  no  parallel  except  in  the  wholesale 
seizure  of  the  churches,  convents  and  other  properties  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  Germany  and  England  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation.  (See  Appendix  Note  F.)  In  this  historical  fact 
is  contained  a  sufficient  answer,  I  think,  to  those  who,  ignoring 
the  real  condition  of  affairs  in  France,  have  said  and  written 
that  the  Church  had  no  right  to  receive  salaries  from  the  State. 
Here  it  is  not  question  of  salaries,  as  the  clergy  are  no  Government 
employes,  but  it  is  a  question  of  restitution  of  stolen  goods.  Sup- 
pose that  the  Sacramento  Legislature  should  pass  a  bill  confis- 
cating the  property  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  California,  and 
then  agree  to  pay  an  annuity  of  one  per  cent  on  the  stolen  capital 
to  enable  the  clergy  to  carry  on,  as  best  they  can,  their  spiritual 
ministrations,  Avhat  would  you  think  of  our  law-givers,  if,  after 
perpetrating  this  outrage,  they  were  to -pass  another  bill  sup- 
pressing even  that  small  pittance?  If  such  things  could  and 
did  happen  in  this  countr}',  there  would  be  resistance  here  too, 
but  so  effective  and  so  vigorous  that  such  laws  would  be  instantly 
repealed  and  would  never  be  attempted  again.  But  we  need  not 
entertain  any  fear  of  State  legislation  hostile  to  the  Church 
so  long  as  the  Articles  of  the  Federal  Constitution  remain  in 
force.  The  recent  decisions  of  the  United  States  Courts  in  Cuba, 
the  Philippines  and  Porto  llico,  by  which  the  legitimate  claims 
of  the  Catholic  Church  over  her  projDerty  are  ofHciall}'  recognized, 
whilst  highly  honoral)le  to  the  Rulers  of  this  country,  at  the  same 
time  teach  a  lesson  of  justice  and  fair  dealing  to  all  civili/ed 
countries,  and  particularly  to  the  i)resent  French  Parliauient 
that  needs  it  )nost.     (See  Appendix   Note  J.) 

The  Catholic  Church  was  founded  by  Jesus  Ciiri.st,  the  Son 
of  God;  fi-om  llim  alone  are  dci-ived  her  authority,  her  powers 
and  her  rights.  Hence  She  is  neither  the  servant  nor  the  slave 
of  any  earthly  potentate  nor  of  any  political  government,  be  it 
a  Monarchy  or  a  RejMiblic;  and  no  Catholic,  who  resj^ects  iiim- 
self,  will  give  up  his  religious  freedom  at  the  bidding  of  any 
crowned  despot.  Rather  than  to  do  so,  if  he  be  true  to  his  Faith, 
he  will  do  what  ('ardinal  Fisher,  Thonuis  More,  and  the  aged 
Countess  of  Salisl)ury   and   thousand    other   heroic   souls   ilitl   in 

10 


England,  Ireland  and  Scotland  in  the  16th  century,  Avho  died 
martyi's  in  the  defense  of  truth,  justice  and  right  and  are  now 
honored  on  our  altars.  Pie  will  likewise  shed  his  blood  rather 
than  to  bow  to  tyranny,  and  prove  faithless  to  God,  and  a  traitor 
to  his  Church.  The  officials  of  the  French  Government  are  but 
imitators  of  the  early  Roman  emperors,  who  persecuted  the 
Christians  on  the  very  plea  put  forward  in  our  day  by  the  French 
Ministers,  that  Catholicism  is  a  menace  and  danger  to  the  State, 
an  enemy  of  the  Republic.  By  a  strange,  but  not  unforeseen 
coincidence,  this  was  the  very  charge  brought  by  the  Jewish 
Synagogue  against  Jesus  Christ,  when  they  led  Him  before  the 
Roman  Governor,  This  man,  said  they,  is  a  rebel,  and  an  enemy 
of  Caesar;  a  striking  coincidence  that  reminds  us  of  Christ's 
prediction:  ''The  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  Master;  if  they 
have  persecuted  me,  they  Avill  also  persecute  you."  John  XV.  20. 
By  refusing  to  submit  to  the  Separation  Law,  and  the  Associa- 
tions of  Worship,  the  Church  simply  declined  to  sign  her  own 
death  warrant  in  France,  and  she  took  her  stand  for  religious 
liberty  on  the  principle  of  common  law.  She  was  bidden  to  sub- 
mit to  a  lay  organization,  which  she  could  not  accei:)t  without 
imperiling  her  very  existence  as  a  divine  institution.  YvHiat  did 
then  the  professedly  pacific  Government  do  ?  Defeated  in  their 
attempt  to  enslave  the  Church,  they  have  resorted  to  brute  force. 
Priests,  Bishops,  Cardinals  were  evicted  from  their  homes; 
clerical  students  were  driven  out  of  their  seminaries  and  thous- 
ands of  them  will  soon  be  forcibly  enrolled  in  the  army  and 
compelled  to  spend  their  days  in  military  barracks  in  the  midst 
of  a  licentious  soldiery.  Not  less  than  40,000  churches  were  seized 
and  declared  national  property.  (Article  12.)  Behold  here  a 
most  disgusting  evidence  of  a  cruel  and  mean  revenge,  a  tem- 
porary triumph  of  might  over  right !  This  is  the  spectacle  that 
the  French  Government,  domineered  by  Masonic  lodges,  presents 
to  the  civilized  world.  Divine  worship  made  almost  impractic- 
able. Bishops  and  Priests  prosecuted,  fined  and  imprisoned  for 
celebrating  Holy  Mass  in  a  public  church,  and  the  Faithful  sub- 
jected to  vexatious  measures  for  assisting  at  it ;  millions  of  souls 
deprived  of  the  spiritual  ministrations,  and  speeding  to  eternity 
without  the  consolations  of  religion.  The  whole  land  is  in  a  grip 
of  a  terror  none  the  less  criminal  and  hideous,  because  it  masque- 
rades in  the  name  of  the  law,  and  under  the  garb  of  liberty. 
Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  that  unhappy  land,  as 
we  learn  from  the  Catholic  journals,  horrible  scenes  of  sacrilege 
and  desecrations  are  witnessed  on  all  sides.  Here  is  one  specimen 
out  of  many  of  the  incitement  and  official  encouragement,  if  any 
were  needed,  to  sacrilegious  profanations  given  to  apostates  and 
atheists  by  the  civil  authority  in  France.  The  Prefect  of  Police 
of  St.  Ferdinand  des  Ternes  sent  to  his  subordinate  officers  the 
order:  "Not  to  prevent  any  demonstrations  that  freethinkers 
might  make  in. the  churches."  (Paris  Univers — Sunday,  Dec.  16, 
1906.)  We  are  not  surprised  at  this  attitude  of  the  police  force 
in  provincial  towns,  when  we  recall  what  the  gendarmes  did  in 
Paris  under  the  instruction  of  the  Clemenceau  Cabinet.  They 
forcibly  broke  into  the  palace  of  the  papal  Nuncio,  expelled  his 
secretar}^  Mgr.  Montagnini,  from  French  territor}-^  and  seized 
all   the   diplomatic   correspondence   and   documents   they   could 

11 


lay  tlieir  hands  on;  and  the  Government  rejoiced  at  having  in 
their  hands  what  they  chiim  to  be  proofs  of  the  plots  and  con- 
spiracies of  the  Vatican  against  the  Republic.  Neither  Rome, 
nor  the  Catholics  throughout  the  world  need  be  in  dread  of  any 
compromising  revelations  from  the  publication  of  these  docu- 
ments, if  they  will  at  all  see  the  light  of  day.  Meanwhile  the 
Papal  Secretar}'  of  State,  Cardinal  Merry  Del  Val,  as  in  duty 
bound,  has  sent  to  all  the  diplomatic  representatives  of  the  Holy 
See,  for  communication  to  their  respective  Government,  a  vi<?orous 
protest  against  such  outrage:  a  grave  offense  not  only  against 
the  Holy  See,  but  against  the  civilized  Powers,  which  have  the 
highest  interest  in  having  their  diplomatic  documents  respected. 
It  is  an  act  absolutely  without  precedent,  as  even  when  diplomatic 
relations  cease,  it  is  customar}-  to  respect  as  inviolate  the  residence 
and  archives  of  foreign  representatives.  The  French  Cabinet 
would  never  attempt  such  outrageous  robbery  in  the  palace  of 
any  other  ambassador,  but  thej^  knew  they  could  do  so  with 
impunity  in  that  of  the  Pope's  Nuncio,  the  representative  of  the 
defenseless  old  man  of  the  Vatican.  (See  Appendix  Note  D.) 
Had  one  hundredth  part  of  what  has  recently  been  done  in 
France  under  the  Republic  happened  in  some  obscure  Armenian 
village  under  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  English  and  American  news- 
papers would  have  tilled  their  columns  with  indignant  protests 
against  such  atrocities,  and  angry  throats  would  have  clamored 
on  their  Government  to  take  action.  But  as  in  this  case,  it  is 
merely  a  question  concerning  the  Catholic  Church,  from  most 
papers,  particularly  in  England,  we  have  nothing  but  denuncia- 
tions of  the  blind  obstinacy  and  political  intrigue  of  the  Pope 
of  Rome,  because,  forsooth,  he  refused  to  submit  to  laws  sub- 
versive of  the  Constitution  of  the  Church  as  founded,  organized 
and  established  by  the  Son  of  God.*  I  am  glad,  however,  to  be 
able  to  say  that  there  are  some  honorable  exceptions  in  the  secular 
press  of  this  country,  and  the  dailies  of  our  own  city,  among 
which  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle  in  several  able  editorials 
expressed  the  correct  vicAv  of  the  situation  and  justly  denounced, 
in  no  measured  terms,  the  French  Government  for  their  utterly 
indefensible  policy  of  persecution  against  the  Catholic  Church. 
This  attitude  does  great  honor  to  the  Editors  of  that  journal, 
whom  others  should  imitate.  Thank  God,  the  love  of  justice  and 
fair  play  has  not  entirely  disai)])eared  from  the  American  soil. 
But  let  us  briefly  inquire  into  the  reasons  or  motives  of  this 
persecution.  Is  it  to  secure  public  tranquility,  social  order,  to 
defend  the  Rejiublic  against  dynastic  conspiracies?  After  the 
public  declarations  made  in  the  French  Parliament  by  Viviani, 
one  of  the  rabid  Socialists,  in  a  speech,  which  was  ordered  to 
be  published  all  over  France,  only  fools  can  be  deceived  on  this 
point.  Here  is  what  ho  said:  "We  are  banded  together  in  a 
work  of  anti-clericalism;  we  have  torn  faith  in  auother  lite  from 
the  heart  of  the  pcoph;;  witli  a  great  wave  of  our  liaud,  we  have 
put  out  the  torch  of  Heaven,  which  shall  never  again  be  lekiud- 
led."  The  poor,  impudent,  puny  blasi»hemcr  wouhl  wish  also, 
no  doubt,  to  do  away,  if  he  could,  with  the  eternal  lire  of  hell, 
but  he  finds  it  to  be,  at  present  at  least,  beyond  his  reach.  A 
still  more  blas])]»euH)Us  uttei'ancc  is  that  of  Briand.  the  minister 

•  {Hcv  ApiM'iKlix  Nut.'  i;.i 

12 


of  Avorship.  the  notorious  fniiner  of  the  Separation  Bill,  which 
he  is  now  compelled  to  throw  into  the  waste  basket,  as  utterly 
useless,  because  it  cannot  be  applied.  Here  are  his  precise  words. 
Addressing  an  assembly  of  public  school  teachers  he  said :  "The 
time  has  come  to  root  up  from  the  minds  of  French  children  the 
ancient  Faith,  and  replace  it  with  the  light  of  free  thought.  It 
is  time  to  get  rid  of  the  Christian  idea.  We  have  hunted  Jesus 
Christ  out  of  the  army,  the  navy,  the  schools,  the  hospitals,  the 
insane  asylums,  the  orphan  asylujns  and  the  law  courts,  and  now 
we  must  hunt  Him  out  of  the  State  altogether."  To  the  preceding 
blasphemous  avowals  let  me  add  that  of  the  Prime  Minister 
Clemenceau.  who  thus  outlined  his  progranune  of  diabolical 
iniquity  in  his  Parisian  journal,  La  Patrie,  in  the  issue  of  Dec. 
31,  190G:  "If.  notwithstanding  these  preliminary  measures,  the 
suppression  of  religious  orders,  the  abolition  of  the  Concordat, 
and  the  secularization  of  the  schools,  clericalism  should  yet 
manage  to  exist  and  preserve  some  roots  here  and  there  in  this 
country,  we  shall  be  able,  in  the  name  of  the  law,  to  extir2:»ate 
them  entirely,  thus  rendering  for  ever  impossible  all  religious 
worship,  by  a  clever  application  of  some  articles  of  the  penal 
code.  Thus,  for  instance,  by  declaring  that  confession  corrupts 
youth,  we  shall  prevent  Priests  from  discharging  one  of  the  most 
important  functions  of  their  ministry  by  accusing  them  of 
violating  Article  334,  and  punishing  them  accordingly.  We  shall 
also  sucreod  in  depriving  them  of  all  financial  resources  by  for- 
bidding them,  by  law,  to  receive  from  the  French  peojDle  any 
contribution  for  their  support,  or  any  offering  for  Masses,  Bapt- 
ism, Funerals,  or  other  functions.  To  accomplish  this  object  it 
will  be  enough  to  assimilate  the  reception  of  such  pecuniary  aid 
to  the  exaction  of  money  under  false  pretences,  a  misdemeanor 
punishable  by  laAv  according  to  Articles  405.  4-27.  Hence  by  the 
Bill  effecting  the  Separation  of  the  Church  from  the  State,  the 
Republican  party  will  be  able  to  compass  its  definite  purpose, 
which  is  the  realization  of  our  socialistic  program,  the  triumph 
of  the  atheistic  State  by  the  extinction  of  the  last  remnant  of" 
Catholic  life  in  France."  In  consequence  of  such  utterances  as 
these,  by  three  members  of  the  present  Cabinet,  and  the  spread 
of  atheistic  doctrines  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  that 
country,  there  is  now  in  the  principal  cities  of  France  a  carnival 
of  cynical  atheism  and  appalling  corruption.  Infidel  writers 
are  held  in  honor,  whose  works  breathe  blasphemy  and  indecency 
of  the  blackest  dyo,.  Now  the  Catholic  Church  stands  for  decency, 
godliness,  public  and  private  morality  and  truth;  hence  the 
reason  why  she  is  hated  with  a  diabolical  hate.  The  sight  of  a 
Church  and  a  Priest  is  an  eye  sore  to  these  coward  apostates,  be- 
cause they  remind  them  of  their  treacherj^  and  criminal  conduct: 
hence  their  attempt  to  abolish  and  exterminate  them  from  the  land. 
No  one  then  can  doubt  that,  as  the  Holy  Father  says  in  a  recent 
.  Encyclical  (January  6,  1907,)  the  moving  impulse  of  the  French 
Government  in  its  fierce  attacks  on  Catholics  is  at  the  bottom  a 
defiant  hatred  of  all  religion  in  any  shape  or  form,  excepting 
perhaps  Mohammedanism,  to  support  which  a  mosque  with  its 
lofty  minarets  has  been  recently  erected  in  Paris,  and  we  feel 
quite  sure  that  it  will  not  be  closed  or  suppressed.  Now  here  we 
may  ask.    Have  these  puny  tyrants  found  out  that  Christianity 

^  13 


and  Catholicism  in  particular,  are  a  fraud?  Have  they  dis- 
proved the  divine  institution  of  the  Church?  Not  at  all.  Con- 
scious of  their  powerlessness  they  have  not  even  attempted  the 
impossible  task :  but  finding  themselves  baffled  in  the  battleground 
of  reason  by  the  brave  champions  of  Christ,  they  resort  to  the 
barbarous  methods  of  violence  and  brute  force,  the  ordinary 
Aveapons  of  highwaymen  and  hired  assassins.  In  the  face  of 
such  high-handed  iniquities  the  President  of  the  French  Re- 
public, in  addressing  the  foreign  ambassadors  on  New  Year's 
reception,  had  the  effrontery  to  say  that  "the  ideal  policy  of 
France  is  to  foster  the  sj^irit  of  concord  and  peace,  a  regard  for 
public  opinion  and  the  rights  of  conscience."  Lying  assurances 
that  must  have  provoked  a  smile  of  piteous  contempt  in  the  diplo- 
mats that  heard  them.  It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  there  exists 
now  in  France  a  political  party  bent  on  the  destruction  of  relig- 
ion; it  wages  a  relentless  war  against  the  idea  itself  of  God  reign- 
ing over  men.  The  Christian  motto  "God  protect  France"  hith- 
erto engraved  on  their  coins  is  henceforth  to  be  stricken  out  and 
replaced  by  the  revolutionary  cant:  Liberty,  Equality  and  Fra- 
ternity, the  moaning  of  which,  as  interpreted  b}'  the  language  of 
facts,  we  have  seen  above.  This  party  active,  persistent  and 
unscrupulous,  forced  itself  with  vengeance  to  the  front.  It  has 
grasped  the  helm  of  power  and  it  steers  the  ship  of  State  into 
the  darkest  depths  of  impiety  and  unbelief:  reducing  France, 
once  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Church,  to  be  a  by-word  and  an 
outcast  in  the  family  of  nations.  Its  ruling  principle  is  that 
Caesar  is  above  God ;  that  the  State  is  omnipotent ;  that  it  must 
control  all  agencies,  brook  no  rival,  and  that  consequently  the 
Church,  if  she  wants  to  exist  at  all,  must  bow  to  its  behests  and 
do  its  bidding.  It  is  now  an  open  secret  that  the 
recent  legislation  in  France,  hostile  to  the  Church,  has  been  con- 
cocted in  the  Masonic  lodges  before  it  was  presented  for  official 
sanction  to  the  French  Parliament:  a  fact  which  fully  accounts 
for  the  adhesion  to  the  persecuting  policy  received  from  foreign 
Masonic  bodies.  Here  is  one  instance  in  point:  On  December 
23d,  1006,  the  leaders  of  the  socialistic  Masonic  party  in  Italy 
sent  to  the  Prime  Minister,  Clemenceau,  the  following  telegram: 
"To  you,  the  brave  defender  of  liberty,  and  to  your  adlicrents, 
who  are  fighting  for  the  triumph  of  justice,  we;  the  leaders  of 
the  socialistic  party,  express  our  sentiments  of  sympathy  and  joy. 
Long  live  the  lay,  socialistic  Rei)ublic."  If  the  doings  of  Free- 
masonry in  the  present  cri.sis  do  not  o])on  the  eyes  of  the  people 
to  convince  them  once  for  ever  of  the  baneful  influence  of  secret 
societies,  I  doubt,  if  anything  else  short  of  a  miracle  will  do  it. 
But  I  must  conclude.  For  the  moment  clouds  hang  heavy  on 
thut  unha])py  land,  but  Catholics  all  over  the  Avorld.  whilst 
hel))ing  their  French  brethren  all  they  can,  will  possess  their 
.souls  in  patience  and  confidence,  comforted  by  the  knowledge 
that  these  men,  who  are  raising  violent  hands  again.st  the  Church 
of  God  in  France,  are  warring  against  a  power,  which,  as  Cardi- 
nal Newman  reminds  us,  "None  can  assault  witliout  misfortune 
and  defeat."  Tlie  end  is  not  yet,  and  the  issue  of  the  .struggle 
is  still  in  the  future;  but  the  splendid  unanimity,  with  which  the 
Bishops,  the  clergy  and  the  Catholic  laity  of  France  have  closed 
their  ranks,  sufl'ering  and  struggling  for  ju.stice  in  obedience  to 

14 


the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ,  a  spectacle  altogether  unparalleled  in 
the  history  of  the  Church,  has  given  birth  to  a  union  that  means 
strength  and  gives  assurance  of  ultimate  victory.  (See  Document 
IV.)  Moved  and  encouraged  by  the  words  of  Pius  X.,  the 
clergy  and  Catholic  ])eople  of  France  are  braving  the  wrath  and 
fury  of  that  infidel  Masonic  Government,  and  ready  to  endure 
any  sacrifice'  rather  than  compromise  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the 
divine  rights  of  the  Church.  And  if  they  shall  be  true  to  their 
Avords,  as  we  firmly  believe  thej^  will,  the  world  is  about  to  behold 
one  of  the  most  sublime  spectacles  ever  witnessed  since  the  days 
of  the  early  martyrs,  the  triumph  of  moral  power  over  brute 
force:  another  fulfillment  of  the  promise  made  by  the  Divine 
Redeemer  to  His  Church  when  He  said :  ' '  The  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail  against  it."  (Matth.  XVI,  18).  As  the  poet  sang: 

"Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again. 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers." 

(See  Appendix  Note  H.) 


Document  I. 

THE  FRENCH  SEPARATION  BILL 

(Passed  by  the  French  Government  and  signed  by  the  President 
of  the  Republic,  in  December,  1905.) 

Here  are  quoted  from  the  text  only  such  articles  as  are  referred 
to  in  the  Lecture  and  denounced  in  the  Pope's  Encyclicals  as  an- 
tagonistic to  the  divine  institution  and  organization  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church.  The  articles  omitted  are  all  likewise  hostile  to  the 
Church,  as  they  contain  no  privilege,  concession  or  favor,  that 
the  French  Bishops  could  conscientiously  accept. 

The  expression  Germinal  18,  year  X.,  in  Article  12,  means 
April  18,  the  tenth  year  of  the  first  French  Republic:  and  the 
term  ]Messidor  26,  year  IX.,  in  Article  44,  means  the  26th  of  the 
harvesting  month,  the  ninth  year  of  the  first  French  Republic. 

The  reader  will  at  once  understand  the  reason  of  this  novel 
terminology  of  dates  to  be  met  with  even  in  our  day  in  French 
laws,  when  he  is  reminded  of  the  doings  of  the  revolutionary 
Jacobins  of  1792,  who  to  destroy,  as  far  as  they  could,  all  Chris- 
tian tradition  replaced  all  Church  feasts  hy  profane  festivals, 
changed  the  week  from  seven  to  ten  days,  changed  likewise  the 
names  of  the  months,  and  suppressed  the  Christian  era  by  reckon- 
ing the  years  from  the  beginning  of  their  bloody  Republic,  Sep- 
tember 22,  1792. 

Chapter  I. 

PRINCIPLES. 

Article  1. — The  Republic  assures  liberty  of  conscience.  It 
guarantees  the  free  exercise  of  worship  under  the  sole  restrictions 
set  forth  hereinafter  in  the  interest  of  public  order. 

Article  2. — The  Republic  neither  recognizes  nor  salaries  nor 
subventions  any  form  of  worship.  Consequently,  from  January 
1,  after  the  promulgation  of  the  present  law,  there  will  be  struck 
out  of  the  Budgets  of  the  State,  of  the  Departments,  and  of  the 

15 


Communes,  all  expenses  connected  with  the  exercise  of  worship. 
However,  there  maj'  be  set  down  in  the  aforesaid  Budgets  the 
expenses  necessar}'  for  the  service  of  chaplains  and  those  intended 
to  ensure  the  free  exercise  of  worship  in  public  establisliments 
such  as  Ij'cees,  collefjes,  schools,  hospitals,  asylums,  and  prisons. 
The  public  establishments  of  worship  are  suppressed  under 
reserve  of  the  dispositions  set  forth  in  Article  3. 

Chapter   II. 

APPORTIONMENT    OF    PROPERTY. 

Article  3. — The  establishments  ordered  to  be  suppressed  by 
Article  2  shall  continue  to  act  provisionally  according  to  existing 
regulations  until  the  transference  of  their  property-  to  the  associa- 
tions provided  for  by  Chapter  IV,  and  at  latest  till  the  expiration 
of  the  term  set  forth  below. 

On  the  promulgation  of  tlie  present  law  the  agents  of  the 
Administration  des  Domaines  shall  proceed  to  make  a  descriptive 
inventory  and  estimate : 

1.  Of  the  personal  and  real  property  of  the  aforesaid  estab- 
lishments ; 

2.  Of  the  property  of  the  State,  the  Departments,  and  the 
Communes,  of  which  the  same  establishments  have  now  the  use. 

This  twofold  inventory  shall  be  drawn  up  after  hearing  the 
legal  representatives  of  the  ecclesiastical  establishments,  or  of 
persons  duly  summoned  by  a  notification  made  in  the  usual 
administrative  form. 

The  agents  charged  with  the  inventory  shall  have  the  right  to 
compel  the  production  of  all  title-deeds  and  documents  useful 
to  their  work. 

Article  4. — In  a  delay  of  a  year  from  the  promulgation  of 
the  present  law,  the  personal  and  real  property  of  the  menses, 
falJriques,  presbyteral  councils,  consistories,  and  other  public 
ecclesiastical  establishments  of  worship,  with  all  the  charges 
and  obligations  laid  upon  them  and  with  their  special  apportion- 
ment, shall  be  made  over  by  the  legal  representatives  of  those 
establishments  to  the  associations,  which  shall  be  legally  formed 
in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  general  organization  of  the 
religion  of  which  they  are  to  maintain  the  exercise,  according 
to  the  provisions  of  Article  19,  for  the  exercise  of  their  religion 
in  the  old  districts  of  the  establishments  aforesaid. 

Article  8. — In  default  of  an  ecclesiastical  establishment  having 
proceeded  to  hand  over,  within  the  period  prescribed,  the 
property  as  above  provided,  provision  will  be  made  by  decree. 

At  the  expiration  of  the  said  term,  the  property  to  be  handed 
over  will,  until  its  conveyance,  be  placed  under  secjuestration. 

In  cases  where  the  property  transferred  under  Article  1  and 
paragraph  1  of  the  jjresent  Article  is  claimed  at  once  or  later 
by  several  associations  set  up  for  the  exercise  of  the  same  form 
of  worship,  the  transference  which  shall  have  been  nuide  of  it 
by  the  representatives  of  the  establishment  or  by  decree  may 
be  contested  before  the  Council  of  State  sitting  as  arbitrator 
which  shall  give  its  decision  after  taking  into  account  all  the 
circumstances  of  fact  connected  with  the  case. 

16 


Article  d. — In  default  of  there  being  any  association  to  take 
over  the  property  of  a  public  establishment  of  a  religion,  this 
property  shall  be  handed  over  by  decrees  to  the  coniuuinal 
establishments  of  assistance  and  charity  situated  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  ecclesiastical  district  concerned. 

Article  12. — Buildings  which  have  been  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  the  nation  and  which,  in  virtue  of  the  Law  of  Germinal  18, 
Year  X.,  serve  for  the  public  exercise  of  the  various  religions 
or  for  the  housing  of  their  ministers  (cathedrals,  churches, 
chapels,  temples  ,s3''nagogues,  archbishops'  and  bishops'  houses, 
presbyteries,  seminaries),  as  well  as  their  real  property  and  the 
furniture  in  them  at  the  time  when  these  buildings  were  handed 
over  to  the  different  religions,  are  and  shall  remain  the  property 
of  the  State,  the  departments  and  the  communes. 

Article  IG.  The  ecclesiastical  archives  and  libraries  in  arch- 
bishops' and  bishops'  houses,  gimnd  scminair'es,  parochial  churches 
and  chapels-of-ease,  and  their  dependencies,  shall  be  inventoried, 
and  those  which  shall  be  recognized  as  the  property  of  the  State 
shall  be  restored  to  it. 

Article  17.  Every  infraction  of  the  above  provisions,  as  also  of 
those  of  Article  IG  of  the  present  law,  and  of  Articles  4,  10,  11,  12 
and  13  of  the  Law^  of  March  30,  1887,  shall  be  punished  by  a  fine 
of  100  to  10,000  francs,  and  by  an  imprisonment  of  six  days  to 
three  months,  or  by  one  or  other  of  these  penalties  single. 

Chapter  IV. 

ASSOCIATIONS  FOR  THE  EXERCISE  OF  WORSHIP. 

Article  18. — The  associations  formed  for  maintaining  the  cost, 
upkeep,  and  public  exercise  of  a  religion  must  be  constituted 
in  accordance  with  Articles  5  and  following  of  Chapter  I.  of  the 
Law  of  JuW  1,  1901.  They  shall,  moreover,  be  subject  to  the 
provisions  of  the  present  law. 

Article  19. — These  associations  must  have  for  their  exclusive 
object  the  exercise  of  a  particular  form  of  worship,  and  must 
at  least  be  composed  of: 

Seven  persons,  in  communes  of  less  than  1,000  inhabitants; 
fifteen  jDersons  in  communes  of  1,000  to  20,000  inhabitants; 
twent3'-five  adult  persons,  domiciled  or  resident  w^ithin  the 
ecclesiastical  district  in  communes  the  inhabitants  of  which 
number  over  20,000. 

Article  21. — The  associations  and  unions  shall  keej)  an  account 
of  their  receipts  and  expenditure;  they  shall  each  year  draw  up 
a  balance  sheet  for  the  past  year,  and  an  inventory  of  their 
propert}^  real  and  personal.  Financial  control  over  the  associa- 
tions and  unions  shall  be  exercised  by  the  Registration  ollicials 
and  the  General  Insj)eciorate  of  Finance. 

Article  23. — The  directors  or  administrators  of  an  association 
or  unionwho  shall  have  contravened  Articles  18,  20,  21  and  22, 
shall  be  liable  to  a  fine  of  16  to  200  francs  and  in  the  case  of  a 
second  oifense  to  a  fine  double  that  amount. 

The  Courts  shall  be  able  in  case  of  infraction  of  the  first 
paragraph  of  Article  22,  to  condemn  the  association  or  union 

17 


to  hand  over  any  excess  to  the  eominiinal  establishments  of  aid 
and  chant}'. 

They  niaj^  also,  in  all  cases  provided  for  in  the  first  paragraph 
of  the  present  Article,  declare  the  dissolution  of  the  association 
or  union. 

Article  24.  The  buildinijs  Avhic-h  serve  for  the  housing  of  min- 
isters of  religion,  seminaries,  and  faculties  of  Protestant  theology 
which  belong  to  the  State,  the  deijartments  or  the  communes,  and 
the  property  belonging  to  the  associations  or  unions  are  subject  to 
the  same  taxes  as  that  belonging  to  private  persons. 

Chapter  V. 

THE   "police"   of    WORSHIP. 

Article  25. — Assemblies  for  the  celebration  of  worship  in  places 
belonging  to  an  association  of  worship  or  at  its  disposal  must 
be  public.  They  are  dispensed  from  the  formalities  of  Article  8 
of  the  Law  of  June  30,  1881,  but  they  remain  subject  to  the 
surveillance  of  the  authorities  in  the  interest  of  public  order. 
They  may  only  be  held  after  a  declaration  which  has  been  nuule 
according  to  the  forms  prescribed  by  Article  2  of  the  same  law 
and  names  the  place  in  which  they  are  to  be  held. 

A  single  declaration  is  sufficient  for  the  whole  series  of  regular, 
periodical  or  occasional  a.-:?emblies  which  take  place  during  the 
year. 

Article  27. — Ceremonies,  processions,  and  other  external  dem- 
onstrations of  religion  shall  continue  to  be  regulated  according 
to  Articles  05  and  00  of  the  municipal  law  of  April  5,  1884. 

The  ringing  of  bells  shall  be  regulated  by  municii)al  decree 
and  in  case  of  disagreement  between  the  mayor  and  th  president 
or  director  of  the  association,  bj'  order  of  the  prefect. 

Ai'ticle  30. — According  to  the  provisions  of  Article  2  of  the 
Law  of  March  28,  1882,  religious  teaching  may  be  given  to  chil- 
dren between  the  ages  of  six  and  thirteen  on  the  registers  of  the 
public  schools  onl}-  outside  school  hours. 

In  regard  to  ministers  of  religion  who  should  infringe  these 
prescriptions,  the  provisions  of  Article  14  of  the  Law  above 
mentioned  will  be  carried  out. 

Article  34. — An}'  minister  of  religion  who,  in  places  in  which 
worship  is  carried  out,  shall,  by  discourse  pronounced,  by  reading, 
by  distribution  or  ])lacardinq|-  of  writings,  have  outraged  or 
defamed  a  citizen  charged  Avith  a  public  service,  shall  be  punished 
with  a  fine  of  500  to  3,000  francs,  and  an  imprisonment  of  a 
month  to  a  year,  or  one  of  these  ]:>enalties  singly. 

Article  35. — If  a  discourse  delivered  or  a  document  placarded 
or  publicly  distributed  in  the  places  in  which  worship  is  held, 
contains  a  direct  i)ro vocation  to  resist  the  execution  of  the  laws 
or  the  legal  acts  of  ])ul)lic  authority,  or  tends  to  arouse  or  arm 
one  section  of  the  citizens  against  the  others,  the  minister  of 
religion  who  shall  be  guilty  of  it  shall  be  punished  with  an 
imprisonment  of  3  months  lo  2  years,  without  jirejudice  to  the 
penalties  of  comi)licil}'  in  the  cases  wherein  the  provocation 
sliould  be  followed  by  sedition,  revolt  or  civil  war. 

Ai'ticic  40.-  -For  eight  yeai's  from  tlie  pi-ouiulgati(»n  of  the 
present    F/iw.  ministers  of  religion  shnll   not  be  eligible   foi-  the 

18  " 


municipal  councils  in  the  communes  in  which  they  exercise  their 
ecclesiastical  functions. 

Article  44. — A\\  provisions  connected  with  the  public  organ- 
ization of  the  religions  previously  recognized  by  the  State,  as 
well  as  all  provisions  contrar}^  to  the  present  Law,  are  and  remain 
abrogated,  and  notably: 

1.  The  Law  of  Germinal  18,  Year  X.,  providing  that  the 
Convention  passed  on  Messidor  26,  Year  IX.,  between  the 
Pojje  and  the  French  Government,  together  with  the  Organic 
Articles  of  the  said  Convention  and  of  the  Protestant  wor- 
ship, shall  be  carried  out  as  Laws  of  the  Republic ; 

2.  The  decree  of  March  26,  1852,  and  the  Law  of  August 
1,  1879,  on  Protestant  worship ; 

3.  The  decrees  of  March  17,  1808,  the  Law  of  February 
8,  1831,  and  the  ordinance  of  May  25,  1844,  on  Jewish  wor- 
ship ; 

4.  The  decrees  of  December  22,  1812,  and  March  19,  1859 ; 

5.  Articles  201  to  208,  260  to  264,  and  294  of  the  Penal 
Code. 

6.  Articles  100  to  101,  paragraphs  11  and  12  of  Article 
126  and  Article  167  of  the  Law  of  April  5,  1884 ; 

7.  The  decree  of  December  30,  1809,  and  Article  78  of 
the  Law  of  January  26,  1892. 

(From  the  London  Tablet.) 

Document  II. 

The  Separation  Law  and  the  Associations  of  Worship  con- 
demned and  rejected  by  the  Holy  See. 

ENCYCLICAL   LETTER   OF   OUR  HOLY  FATHER 
POPE  PIUS  X. 

TO  THE  ARCHBISHOPS,  BISHOPS,  CLERGY  AND 
PEOPLE   OF  FRANCE. 

To  Our  Well-Belowed  Sons, 
Fra'ncois  Marie  Richard,  Cardinal  Priest  of  Holy  Roman 
Church,  Archbishop  of  Paris/  Victor  Lucien  Lecot,  Car- 
dinal Priest  of  Holy  Roman  Church,  Archbishop  or 
Bordeaux/  Pierre  Hector  Couillie^  Cardinal  Priest  of 
Holy  Roman  Church,  Archbishop  of  Lyons/  Joseph  Guil- 
lau:me  Laboure,'  Cardinal  Priest  of  Holy  Roman  Church, 
Archbishop  of  Rennes,  and  to  all  Our  Venerable  Breth- 
ren, the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  and  to  all  the  Clergy 
and  People  of  France. 

PIUS  X.,  POPE. 

Venerable  Brethren,  Well-Beloved  Sons, 
Health  and  Apostolic  Benediction. 
Our  soul  is  full  of  sorrowful  solicitude  and  Our  heart  over- 
flows with  grief,  when  Our  thoughts  dwell  upon  you.    How,  in- 
deed, could  it  be  otherwise,  immediately  after  the  promulgation 
of  that  law  which,  by  sundering  violently  the  old  ties  that  linked 

19 


3^our  nation  with  the  xVpostolic  See,  creates  for  the  Catholij 
Church  in  France  a  situation  unworthy  of  her  and  ever  to  be 
lamented?  That  is,  beyond  question,  an  event  of  the  gravest 
import,  and  one  that  must  be  dej^lored  b}'  all  right-minded  men, 
for  it  is  as  disastrous  to  society  as  it  is  to  religion;  but  it  is  an 
event  which  can  have  surprised  nol>ody  who  has  paid  any  atten- 
tion to  the  religious  policy  followed  in  France  of  late  years. 
For  you.  Venerable  Brethren,  it  will  certainly  have  been  nothing 
new  or  strange,  witnesses  as  you  have  been  of  the  many  dreadful 
blows  aimed  from  time  to  time  at  religion  by  the  public  author- 
ity. You  have  seen  the  sanctity  and  the  inviolability  of  Christian 
marriage  outraged  by  legislative  acts  in  formal  contradiction 
with  them;  the  schools"  and  hospitals  laicised;  clerics  torn  from 
their  studies  and  from  ecclesiastical  discipline  to  be  subjected  to 
military  service;  the  religious  congregations  dispersed  and 
despoiled,  and  their  members  for  the  most  part  reduced  to  the  last 
stage  of  destitution.  Other  legal  measures  which  you  all  know 
have  followed :  the  law  ordaining  public  prayers  at  the  beginning 
of  each  Parliamentary  Session  and  of  the  assizes  has  been  abolish- 
ed; the  signs  of  mourning  traditionally  observed  on  board  the 
ships  on  Good  Friday  sup]n-essed;  the  religious  character  effaced 
from  the  judicial  oath;  all  actions  and  emblems  serving  in  any 
way  to  recall  the  idea  of  religion  banished  from  the  courts,  the 
schools,  the  army,  the  navy,  and  in  word,  from  all  public  estab- 
lishments. These  measures  and  others  still  which,  one  after  an- 
other, really  separated  the  Church  from  the  State,  were  but  so 
many  steps  designedly  made  to  arrive  at  complete  and  official 
separation,  as  the  authors  of  them  have  publicly  and  freciuently 
admitted. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Holy  See  has  spared  absolutely  no 
means  to  avert  this  great  calamity.  While  it  was  untiring  in 
warning  those  who  were  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  France,  and  in 
conjuring  them  over  and  over  again  to  Aveigh  well  the  immensity 
of  the  evils  that  would  infallibly  result  from  their  separatist 
policy,  it  at  the  same  time  lavished  upon  France  the  most  striking 
proofs  of  indulgent  aft'ection.  It  had  then  reason  to  hope  that 
gratitude  would  have  stayed  those  politicians  on  their  downward 
path,  and  brought  them  at  last  to  relinquish  their  designs.  But 
all  has  been  in  vain — the  attentions,  good  offices,  and  efforts  of 
Our  Predecessor  and  Ourself.  The  enemies  of  religion  have 
succeeded  at  last  in  efl'ecting  by  violence  what  they  have  long 
desired,  in  defiance  of  your  riglits'  as  a  Catholic  nation  and  of 
the  wishes  of  all  who  think  rightly.  At  a  moment  of  such 
gravity  for  the  Church,  therefore,  filled  with  the  sense  of  Our 
Apostolic  responsibility,  We  have  considered  it  Our  duty  to 
raise  Our  voice  and  to  open  Our  heart  to  you.  Venerable  breth- 
ren, and  to  your  clergy  and  people — to  all  of  you  whom  We  have 
ever  cherished  with  special  aU'ection,  but  wlioui  AA'e  now.  as  is 
only  right,  love  more  tendei-ly  than  ever. 

That  the  State  must  be  separated  from  (he  Church  is  a  thesis 
absolutely  false,  a  most  pernicious  error.  Based,  as  it  is,  on  the. 
principle  that  the  State  must  not  recognize  any  religious  cult, 
it  is  in  the  first  place  guilty  of  a  great  injustice  to  God  ;  for  the 
Creator  of  man  is  also  the  Founder  of  human  societies,  and  pre- 
serves (heir  existence  as  ITo  pi-eserves  our  own.     Wi>  owe   Him, 

20 


therefore,  not  only  a  private  cult,  but  a  public  and  social  worship 
to  honor  Him.    Besides,  it  is  an  obvious  negation  of  the  super- 
natural order.     It  limits  the  action  of  the  State  to  the  pursuit 
of  jDublic  prosperity  during  this  life  only,  which  is  but  the  prox- 
imate object  of  political  societies;  and  it  occupies  itself  in  no 
fashion  (on  the  plea  that  this  is  foreign  to  it)  with  their  ultimate 
object,  which  is  man's  eternal  happiness  after  this  short  life  shall 
have  run  its  course.     But  as  the  present  order  of  things  is  tem- 
porary and  subordinated  to  the  attainment  of  man's  supreme 
and  absolute  Avelfare,  it  follows  that  the  civil  power  must  not 
only  place  no  obstacle  in  the  wa}^  of  this  object,  but  must  aid  us 
in  effecting  it.    It  also  upsets  the  order  providentially  established 
b}^  God  in  the  world,  which  demands  a  harmonious  agreement 
between  the  tAvo  societies,  the  civil  and  the  religious,  although 
each  exercises  its  authority  in  its  OAvn  sphere.     It  follows  neces- 
sarily that  there  are  many  things  belonging  to  them  in  common 
in  wdiich  both  societies  must  have  relations  with  one  another. 
Remove  the  agreement  between  Church  and  State,  and  the  result 
will  be  that  from  these  common  matters  will  sjDring  the  seeds 
of  disputes  which  will  become  acute  on  both  sides ;  it  will  become 
more  difficult  to  see  where  the  truth  lies,  and  great  confusion  is 
certain  to  arise.    Finally,  it  inflicts  great  injury  on  society  itself, 
for  it  cannot  either  prosper  or  last  long  when  due  place  is  not 
left  for  religion,  which  is  the  supreme  rule  and  the  sovereign 
mistress  in  all  questions  touching  the  rights  and  the  duties  of 
men.    Hence  the  Roman  Pontiffs  have  never  ceased,  as  circum- 
stances required,   to   refute  and   condemn   the   doctrine   of  the 
separation  of  Church   and  State.     Our  illustrious  predecessor, 
Leo  XIII.,  especially,  has  frequently  and  splendidly  expoinided 
Catholic  teaching  on  the  relations  which  should  subsist  between 
the  two  societies.     "Between  them,"  he  says,  "there  must  neces- 
sarily be  a  suitable  union,  which  may  not  improperly  be  compared 
w^ith  that  existing  between  body  and  soul. — Quaedam  intercedat 
necesse  est  ordinata  coUigatio  {inter  illas)  quae  quidem  conjunc- 
tio  non  immeinto   comparatur,  per  quam   anima   et   corjms  in 
homine   copvlantiiry     He   proceeds:   "Human   societies   cannot, 
without  becoming  criminal,  act  as  if  God  did  not  exist  or  refuse 
to  concern  themselves  with  religion,  as  though  it  were  something 
foreign  to  them,  or  of  no  purpose  to  them.     ...     As  for  the 
Church,  which  has  God  Plimself  for  its  author,  to  exclude  her 
from  the  active  life  of  the  nation,  from  the  laws,  the  education 
of  the  young,  the   family,   is   a   great   and    pernicious   error. — 
Civitatcs  non  possunt  citra  scelus,  gerere  se  tamquam  si  Deus 
omnino  non  csset,  aut  curam  religionis  velut  alienam  nihilque 
profuturam  abjicere.     .     .     .    Ecclesimn  vera,  quam  Deus  ipse 
constituit,  ab  actione  vitae  excludere,  a  legibus,  ah  institutione 
adolesccntium,  a  societate  domestica,  magniis  et  perniciosus  est 
errors     (Encyclical  "Immortale  Dei,"  Nov.,  1885.) 

And  if  it  is  true  that  any  Christian  State  does  something 
which  is  eminently  disastrous  and  reprehensible  in  separating 
itself  from  the  Church,  how  much  more  deplorable  is  it  that 
France,  of  all  nations  in  the  world,  should  have  entered  on  this 
policy;  France,  which  has  been  during  the  course  of  centuries 
the  object  of  such  great  and  special  predilection  on  the  part  of 
the  Apostolic  See,  whose  fortunes  and  glories  have  ever  been 

21 


closely  bound  up  with  the  practice  of  Christian  virtue  and  respect 
for  religion.  Leo  XIIL  had  truly  good  reason  to  say:  "P'rance 
cannot  forget  that  Providence  has  united  its  destiny  with  the 
Holy  See  by  ties  too  strong  and  too  old  that  she  should  ever 
wish  to  break  them.  And  it  is  this  union  that  has  been  the  source 
of  her  re.il  greatness  and  her  purest  glories.  .  .  .  To  disturb 
this  traditional  union  Avould  be  to  deprive  the  nation  of  part  of 
her  moral  force  and  her  great  influence  in  the  world."  (Allocu- 
tion to  the  French  Pilgrims,  April  13,  1888.) 

And  the  ties  that  consecrated  this  union  should  have  been 
doubly  inviolable  from  the  fact  that  they  were  sanctioned  by 
oath-bqund  treaties.  The  Concordat  entered  upon  by  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiff  and  the  French  Government  was,  like  all  treaties 
of  the  same  kind,  concluded  between  States,  a  bilateral  contract 
binding  on  both  j^artios  to  it.  The  Roman  Pontiff  on  the  one 
side  and  the  Head  of  the  French  Nation  on  the  other  solemnly 
stii)ulated  both  for  themselves  and  their  successors  to  maintain 
inviolate  the  pact  they  signed.  Hence  the  same  rule  applied  to 
the  Concordat  as  to  all  international  treaties,  viz.,  the  law  of 
nations,  which  prescribes  that  it  could  not  be  in  any  way  annulled 
by  one  alone  of  the  contracting  parties.  The  Holy  See  has  always 
oijserved  with  scrui^ulous  fidelity  the  engagements  it  has  made, 
and  it  has  always  required  the  same  fidelity  from  the  State.  This 
is  a  truth  which  no  impartial  judge  can  deny.  Yet  today  the 
State,  by  its  sole  authority,  abrogates  the  .solemn  pact  it  signed. 
Thus  it  violates  its  sworn  promise.  To  break  with  the  Church, 
to  free  itself  from  her  friendship,  it  has  stopped  at  nothing, 
and  has  not  hesitated  to  outrage  the  Apostolic  See  by  this  viola- 
tion of  the  laws  of  nations,  and  to  disturb  the  social  and  political 
order  itself — for  the  reciprocal  security  of  nations  in  their 
relations  with  one  another  depends  mainly  on  the  inviolable 
fidelity  and  the  sacred  respect  with  which  they  observe  their 
treaties. 

The  extent  of  the  injury  inflicted  on  the  Apostolic  See  by  the 
unilateral  abrogation  of  the  Concordat  is  notably  aggravated 
by  the  manner  in  which  the  State  has  effected  this  abrogation. 
It  is  a  princij^le  admitted  without  controversy,  and  universally 
observed  by  all  nations,  that  the  breaking  of  a  treaty  should  be 
previously  and  regularly  notified  in  a  clear  and  explicit  manner, 
to  the  other  contracting  party  by  the  one  which  intends  to  put 
an  end  to  the  treaty.  Yet  not  only  has  no  notification  of  this 
kind  been  made  to  the  Holy  See  but  no  indication  whatever  on  the 
subject  has  been  conveyed  to  it.  Thus  the  French  Governuient 
has  not  hesitated  to  treat  the  Apostolic  See  without  ordinary 
respect  and  without  the  courtesy  that  is  never  omitted  even  in 
dealing  with  the  smallest  States.  Its  officials,  representatives 
though  they  were  of  a  Catholic  nation,  have  heaped  contemj^t 
on  the  dignity  and  power  of  the  Sovereign  ]*ontiff.  the  Sui)r(Mne 
Head  of  the  Church,  whereas  they  should  have  shown  more 
respect  to  this  power  than  to  any  other  political  power — and  a 
respect  all  the  greater  from  the  fact  that  the  Holy  See  is  con- 
cerned with  the  etermil  welfare  of  souls,  and  that  its  mission 
extends  everywhere. 

If  Wo  now  proceed  to  examine  in  itself  the  law  that  has  just 
been  j^ronndgated,  We  find,  therein,  fresh  reason  for  protesting 

22 


still  more  energetically.  AVhen  the  State  broke  the  bonds  of  the 
Concordat,  and  separated  itself  from  the  Church,  it  ought,  as 
a  natural  consequence,  to  have  left  her  her  independence,  and 
allowed  her  to  enjoy  peacefully  that  liberty,  granted  by  the 
common  law,  which  it  pretended  to  assign  to  her.  Nothing  of  the 
kind  has  been  done.  We  recognize  in  the  law  many  exceptional 
and  odiously  restrictive  provisions,  the  effect  of  which  is  to 
place  the  Church  under  the  domination  of  the  civil  power.  It 
has  been  a  source  of  bitter  grief  to  Us  to  see  the  State  thus  en- 
croach on  matters  which  are  within  the  exclusive  jurisdiction 
of  the  Church;  and  We  bewail  this  all  the  more  for  the  reason 
that  the  btate,  dead  to  all  sense  of  equity  and  justice,  has  thereby 
created  for  the  Church  of  France  a  situation  grievous,  crushing, 
and  oppressive  of  her  most  sacred  rights. 

For  the  provisions  of  the  new  law^  are  contrary  to  the  con- 
stitution on  which  the  Church  was  founded  by  Jesus  Christ. 
The  Scripture  teaches  us,  and  the  traditions  of  the  Fathers  con- 
firm the  teaching,  that  the  Church  is  the  mystical  body  of  Christ, 
ruled  by  the  Pastors  and  Doctors  (Ephes.  iv.  11  seq.) — a  society 
of  men  containing  within  its  own  fold  chiefs  avIio  have  full  and 
perfect  powers  for  ruling,  teaching  and  judging  (Matt,  xxviii. 
18-20;  xvi.  18,  19;  xviii.  IT;  Tit.  ii.  15;  II.  Cor.  x.  C;  xiii.  10,  etc.) 
It  follows  that  the  Church  is  essentially  an  luicqual  society,  that 
is,  a  society  comprising  two  categories  of  persons,  the  pastors 
and  the  flock,  those  who  occupy  a  rank  in  the  different  degrees 
of  the  hierarchy  and  the  multitude  of  the  faithful.  So  distinct 
are  these  categories  that  with  the  pastoral  body  only  rests  the 
necessary  right  and  authority  for  promoting  the  end  of  that 
society  and  directing  all  its  members  towards  its  end;  the  one 
duty  of  the  multitude  is  to  allow  themselves  to  be  led,  and,  like 
a  docile  flock,  to  follow  the  pastors.  St.  Cyprian,  Martyr,  ex- 
presses this  truth  admirably  w^hen  he  writes :  ''Our  Lord,  whose 
precepts  we  must  revere  and  observe,  in  establishing  the  episcopal 
dignity  and  the  nature  of  the  Church,  addresses  Peter  thus  in 
the  gospel :  Er/o  cUco  tibi,  quia  tit  es  Petrus,  etc.  Hence,  through 
all  the  vicissitudes  of  time  and  circumstance,  the  plan  of  the 
episcopate  and  the  constitution  of  the  Church  have  always  been 
found  to  be  so  framed  that  the  Church  rests  on  the  Bishops,  and 
that  all  its  acts  are  ruled  by  them. — Dominus  Nostei\  ciijus 
praecepta  metuere  et  servare  dehemus,  episcopi  honorem  et  ec- 
clesiae  suae  rationem  disponens.,  in  evangelio  loquitur  et  dicit 
Pctro :  Ego  dico  tibi  quia  tu  es  Pettnis,  etc.  .  .  .  Inde  per 
temporum  et  successionum  vices  Episcoporum  ordinatio  et  Ec- 
clesiae  ratio  deciirrit^  ut  Ecclesia  per  cosdetii  praepositos  guber- 
netur''''  (St.  Cyprian,  Epist.  xxvii.-xxxiii.  ad  Lapsos  ii.  i.).  St. 
Cyprian  affirms  that  all  this  is  based  on  divine  law,  divina  lege 
fundatum.  The  Law  of  Separation,  in  opposition  to  these  j^rin- 
ciples,  assigns  the  administration  and  the  supervision  of  public 
worship  not  to  the  hierarchical  body  divinely  instituted  by  Our 
Savior,  but  to  an  association  formed  of  laymen.  To  this  associa- 
tion it  assigns  a  special  form  and  a  juridical  personality,  and 
considers  it  alone  as  having  rights  and  responsibilities  in  the  eyes 
of  the  laAv  in  all  matters  appertaining  to  religious  worship.  It 
is  this  association  which  is  to  have  the  use  of  the  churches  and 
sacred  edifices,  which  is  to  possess  ecclesiastical  property,  real 

23 


and  personal,  which  is  to  have  at  its  disposition  (though  only 
for  a  time)  the  residences  of  the  bishops  and  priests  and  the 
seminaries;  which  is  to  administer  the  property,  regulate  collec- 
tions, and  receive  the  alms  and  the  legacies  destined  for  religious 
worship.  As  for  the  hierarchical  body  of  pastors,  the  law  is 
completely  silent.  And  if  it  does  prescribe  that  the  associations 
of  worship  are  to  be  constituted  in  harmony  with  the  general 
rules  of  organization  of  the  cult,  whose  existence  they  are  designed 
to  assure,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  care  has  been  taken  to  declare 
that  in  all  disputes  which  may  arise  relative  to  their  property, 
the  Council  of  the  State  is  the  only  competent  tribunal.  These 
associations  of  worship  are  therefore  placed  in  such  a  state  of 
dependence  on  the  civil  authority  that  the  ecclesiastical  authority 
will,  clearly,  have  no  power  over  them.  It  is  obvious  at  a  glance 
that  all  these  provisions  seriously  violate  the  rights  of  the  Church, 
and  are  in  opposition  with  her  divine  constitution.  Moreover, 
the  law  on  these  points  is  not  set  forth  in  clear  and  precise  terms, 
but  is  left  so  vague  and  so  open  to  arbitrary  decisions  that  its 
mere  interpretation  is  well  calculated  to  be  productive  of  the 
greatest  trouble. 

Besides,  nothing  more  hostile  to  the  liberty  of  the  Church 
than  this  Law  could  well  be  conceived.  For,  with  the  existence 
of  the  association  of  worship,  the  Law  of  Separation  hinders  the 
pastors  from  exercising  the  i:)lenitude  of  their  authority  and  of 
their  office  over  the  faithful,  when  it  attributes  to  the  Council 
of  State  supreme  jurisdiction  over  these  associations  and  submits 
them  to  a  whole  series  of  prescriptions  not  contained  in  common 
law,  rendering  their  formation  difficult  and  their  continued 
existence  more  difficult  still ;  Avhen,  after  proclaiming  the  liberty 
of  public  worshij),  it  proceeds  to  restrict  its  exercise  by  numerous 
exceptions;  when  it  despoils  the  Church  of  the  internal  regulation 
of  the  churches  in  order  to  invest  the  State  with  this  function; 
when  it  thwarts  the  preaching  of  Catholic  faith  and  morals  and 
sets  up  a  severe  and  exceptional  penal  code  for  clerics — when  it 
sanctions  all  these  provisions  and  many  others  of  the  same  kind 
in  which  wide  scope  is  left  to  arbitrary  ruling,  does  it  not  place 
the  Church  in  a  i)osition  of  humiliating  subjection  and,  under 
the  pretext  of  protecting  public  order,  deprive  peaceable  cititzens, 
who  still  constitute  the  vast  majority  in  France,  of  the  sacred 
right  of  practicing  their  religion?  Hence  it  is  not  merely  by 
restricting  the  exercise  of  worship  (to  which  the  Law  of  Separa- 
tion falsely  reduces  the  essence  of  religion)  that  the  State  injures 
the  Church,  but  In'  putting  obstacles  to  her  influence,  always  a 
beneficent  influence  over  the  people,  and  by  paralyzing  her 
activity  in  a  thousand  dillerent  ways.  Thus,  for  inslanco,  the 
State  has  not  been  satisfied  with  the  depriving  the  Church  of 
the  Religious  Orders,  those  precious  auxiliaries  of  hers  in  her 
.sacred  mission,  in  teaching  and  education,  in  charitable  works, 
but  it  must  also  deprive  her  of  the  resources,  which  constitute 
the  human  means  necessary  for  her  existence  and  the  accomijlish- 
ment  of  her  mission. 

In  addition  to  the  wrongs  and  injuries  to  which  we  luive  so 
far  referred,  the  Law  of  Sei)aration  also  violates  and  tramples 
under  foot  the  rights  of  properly  of  the  Church.  In  defiance  of 
all  justice,  it  despoils  the  Church  of  a  great  portion  of  a  patri- 

24 


mony  Avhicli  belongs  to  her  .by  titles  as  niiinerous  as  they  are 
sacred;  it  suppresses  and  annuls  all  the  pious  foundations  con- 
secrated,' with  perfect  legality,  to  divine  worship  and  to  suffrages 
for  the  dead.  The  resources  furnished  by  Catholic  liberality  for 
the  maintenance  of  Catholic  schools,  and  the  working  of  various 
charitable  associations  connected  with  religion,  have  been  trans- 
ferred to  lay  associations  in  which  it  would  be  idle  to  sock  for 
a  vestige  of  religion.  In  this  it  violates  not  only  the  rights  of 
the  Church,  but  the  formal  and  explicit  purpose  of  the  donors 
and  testators.  It  is  also  a  subject  of  keen  grief  to  Us  that  the 
law,  in  contempt  of  all  right,  proclaims  as  ]oroperty  of  the  State, 
Departments  or  Communes  the  ecclesiastical  edifices  dating  from 
before  the  Concordat.  True,  the  Law  concedes  the  gratuitous 
use  of  them,  for  an  indefinite  period,  to  the  associations  of  wor- 
shi}?,  but  it  surrounds  the  concession  with  so  many  and  so  serious 
reserves  that  in  reality  it  leaves  to  the  public  powers  the  full 
disposition  of  them.  Moreover,  We  entertain  the  gravest  fears, 
for  the  sanctity  of  those  temples,  the  august  refuges  of  the  Divine 
Majesty  and  endeared  by  a  thousand  memories  to  the  piety  of 
the  French  people.  For  the}'^  are  certainly  in  danger  of  profana- 
tion if  they  fall  into  the  hands  of  laymen. 

When  the  law,  by  the  suppression  of  the  Budget  of  Public 
Worship,  exonerates  the  State  from  the  obligation  of  providing 
for  the  expenses  of  worship,  it  violates  an  engagement  contracted 
in  a  diplomatic  convention,  and  at  the  same  time  commits  a  great 
injustice.  On  this  point  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt,  for 
the  documents  of  history  offer  the  clearest  confirmation  of  it. 
When  the  French  Government  assumed  in  the  Concordat  the 
obligation  of  suj)pl3'ing  the  clergy  with  a  revenue  sufficient  for 
their  decent  subsistence  and  for  the  requirements  of  public  wor- 
ship, the  concession  was  not  a  merely  gratuitous  one — it  was  an 
obligation  assumed  by  the  State  to  make  restitution,  at  least 
in  part,  to  the  Church  whose  propert}'^  had  been  confiscated  dur- 
ing the  first  Revolution.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  Roman 
Pontiff'  in  this  same  Concordat  bound  himself  and  his  successors, 
for  the  sake  of  peace,  not  to  disturb  the  possessors  of  property 
thus  taken  from  the  Church,  he  did  so  only  on  one  condition: 
that  the  French  Government  should  bind  itself  in  perpetuity  to 
endow  the  clergy  suitably  and  to  provide  for  the  expenses  of 
divine  worship. 

Finally,  there  is  another  point  on  which  We  cannot  be  silent. 
Besides  the  injuries  it  inflicts  on  the  interests  of  the  Church,  the 
new  law  is  destined  to  be  most  disastrous  to  your  country.  For 
there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  it  lamentably  destroys  union  and 
concord.  And  yet  without  such  union  and  concord  no  nation 
can  live  long  or  prosper.  Especially  in  the  present  state  of 
Europe,  the  maintenance  of  ])erfect  harmony  must  be  the  most 
ardent  wish  of  everybody  in  France  who  loves  his  country  and 
has  its  salvation  at  heart.  As  for  Us,  following  the  example  of 
Our  Predecessor  and  inheriting  from  him  a  special  predilection 
for  your  nation.  We  have  not  confined  Ourself  to  striving  for  the 
preservation  of  all  the  rights  of  the  religion  of  your  forefathers, 
but  We  have  always,  with  that  fraternal  peace  of  which  religion 
is  certainly  the  strongest  bond  ever  before  Our  eyes,  endeavored 
to  promote  unity  among  you.       We  cannot,  therefore,  without 

25 


the  keenest  sorrow  observe  that  the  J^'rench  Government  has  just 
done  a  deed  which  inflames  on  religious  grounds  passions  already 
tod  dangerously  excited,  and  which,  therefore,  seems  to  he  cal- 
culated to  plunge  the  whole  country  into  disorder. 

Hence,  mindful  of  Our  Apostolic  charge  and  conscious  of 
the  imperious  duty  incumbent  upon  Us  of  defending  and  pre- 
serving against  all  assaults  the  full  and  absolute  integrity  of 
the  sucred  and  inviolable  rights  of  tlu'  Church.  We  do,  by  virtu« 
of  the  sujDreme  authority  which  God  has  confided  to  Us,  and  on 
the  grounds  above  set  forth,  reprove  and  condemn  the  law  voted 
in  France  for  the  separation  of  Church  and  State,  as  deeply 
unjust  to  God  whom  it  denies,  and  as  laying  down  the  principle 
that  the  Eepublic  recognizes  no  cult.  We  reprove  and  condemn 
it  as  violating  the  natural  law,  the  law  of  nations  and  fidelity 
to  treaties;  as  contrary  to  the  Divine  constitution  of  the  Church, 
to  her  essential  rights  and  to  her  liberty;  as  destroying  justice 
and  trampling  under  foot  the  rights  of  property  which  the 
Church  has  acquired  by  many  titles  and,  in  addition,  b}'  virtue 
of  the  Concordat.  We  reprove  and  condemn  it  as  gravely  ort'ens- 
ive  to  the  dignity  of  this  Apostolic  See,  to  Our  own  })erson.  to 
the  Episcopacy,  and  to  the  clergy  and  all  the  Catholics  of  France. 
Therefore,  We  jDrotest  soleunily  and  with  all  Our  strength  against 
the  introduction,  the  voting  and  the  jDromulgation  of  this  law, 
declaring  that  it  can  never  be  alleged  against  the  imprescriptible 
rights  of  the  Church. 

We  had  to  address  these  grave  words  to  you.  Venerable  Breth- 
ren, to  the  people  of  France  and  of  the  Avhole  Christian  world, 
in  order  to  make  known  in  its  true  light  what  has  been  done. 
Deep  indeed  is  Our  distress  when  AVe  look  into  the  future  and 
see  there  the  evils  that  this  law  is  about  to  bring  upon  a  people 
so  tenderly  loved  by  Us.  And  We  are  still  more  grievously 
affected  by  the  thought  of  the  trials,  sufferings  and  tribulations 
of  all  kinds  that  are  to  be  visited  on  you.  Venerable  Brethren, 
and  on  all  your  clergy.  Yet,  in  the  midst  of  these  crushing  cares, 
We  are  saved  from  excessive  aiHiction  and  discouragement  when 
Our  mind  turns  to  Divine  Providence,  so  rich  in  mercies,  and  to 
the  hope,  a  thousand  times  verified,  that  Jesus  Christ  will  not 
abandon  His  Church  or  ever  deprive  her  of  His  unfailing  sup- 
port. We  are,  then,  far  from  feeling  any  fear  for  the  Church, 
Her  strength  and  her  stability  are  divine,  as  the  exi^eriem-e  of 
ages  triumphantly  proves.  The  world  knows  of  the  endles-^ 
calamities,  each  more  terrible  than  the  last,  that  have  fallen  upon 
her  during  this  long  course  of  time — but  where  all  purely  huuian 
institutions  must  inevitably  have  succumbed — the  Church  has 
drawn  from  her  trials  only  fresh  strength  and  richer  fruitfulness. 
As  to  the  persecuting  laws  passed  against  her,  history  teaches, 
even  in  recent  tiuies,  and  France  itself  confirms  the  lesson,  that 
though  forged  by  hatred,  lliey  are  always  at  last  wisely  abro- 
gated, when  they  are  found  to  be  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of 
the  State.  Ciod  grant  that  those  wiio  are  at  present  in  power 
in  France  may  soon  follow  the  exauijjle  set  for  them  in  this 
matter  by  their  i)i-edecessors.  (Jod  grant  that  they  may,  amid 
the  applau.se  of  all  good  people,  make  haste  to  restore  to  religion, 
the  source  of  civilization  and  pi'ospcrity.  the  lionor  which  is  due 
to  her  together  with  lu^r  liberty. 

20 


Meanwhile,  and  as  long  as  oppressive  persecution  continues, 
the  children  of  the  Church,  puttinr/  on  the  armor  of  lir/Jit^  must 
act  with  all  their  strength  in  defence  of  Truth  and  Justice — 
it  is  their  duty  always,  and  today  more  than  ever.  To  this  holy 
contest  you,  Venerable  Brethren,  who  are  to  be  the  teachers  and 
guides,  v<ill  bring  all  the  force  of  that  vigilant  and  indefatigu- 
able  zeal  of  Avhich  the  French  Episcopate  has,  to  its  honor,  given 
so  many  Avell-known  proofs.  But  above  all  things  avc  wish,  for 
it  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  that  in  all  the  plans  j'ou  under- 
take for  the  defence  of  the  Church,  you  endeavor  to  ensure  the 
uiost  ])erfect  union  of  hearts  and  wills.  It  is  Our  firm  intention 
to  give  3^ou  at  a  fitting  time  practical  instructions  which  shall 
serve  as  a  sure  rule  of  conduct  for  you  amid  the  great  difficulties 
of  the  present  time.  And  We  are  certain  in  advance  that  you 
will  faithfulh'  adopt  them.  Meanwhile  continue  the  salutary 
work  you  are  doing;  strive  to  kindle  piety  among  the  people 
as  much  as  possible;  promote  and  popularize  more  and  more  the 
teaching  of  Christian  doctrine;  preserve  the  souls  entrusted  to 
you  from  the  errors  and  seductions  they  meet  on  all  sides;  in- 
struct, warn,  encourage,  console  your  flocks,  and  jDerform  for  them 
all  the  duties  imposed  on  you  by  your  pastoral  office.  In  this 
work  you  will  certainly  find  indefatigable  collaborators  in  your 
clergy.  It  is  rich  in  men  remarkable  for  piety,  knowledge,  and 
devotion  for  the  II0I3'  See,  and  \\^q,  know  that  they  are  always 
ready  to  devote  themselves  unreservedly  under  your  direction 
to  the  cause  of  the  triumph  of  the  Church  and  the  eternal  salva- 
tion of  souls.  The  clergy  will  also  certainly  understand  that 
during  the  present  turmoil  they  must  be  animated  by  the  senti- 
ments professed  long  ago  by  the  Apostles,  rejoicing  that  they 
are  found  worthy^  to  sufl'er  opprobrium  for  the  name  of  Jesus, 
^^Gaudeiites  (jiioniam  digni  hahitl  svnt  fro  nomine  Jesu  contume- 
Ihnti  jHifT  (Act  V.  41).  They  will  tluM-efore  stoutly  stand 
up  for  the  rights  and  liberty  of  the  Church,  but  without  offence 
to  anybody.  Xay,  more,  in  their  earnestness  to  preserve  charity, 
as  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ  are  especially  bound  to  do,  they 
will  reply  to  iniquity  Avith  justice,  to  outrage  with  mildness, 
and  to  ill-treatment  with  benefits. 

And  now  AVe  turn  to  you,  Catholics  of  France,  asking  you 
to  receive  Our  words  as  a  testimony  of  that  most  tender  affection 
with  which  We  have  never  ceased  to  love  your  country,  and  as 
comfort  to  you  in  the  midst  of  the  terrible  calamities  through 
which  you  will  have  to  pass.  You  know"  the  aim  of  the  impious 
sects  which  are  placing  your  heads  under  their  yoke,  for  they 
themselves  have  proclaimed  with  cynical  boldness  that  they 
are  determined  to  "de-Catliolicize"'  France.  They  want  to  root 
out  from  your  hearts  the  last  vestige  of  the  faith  whicli  covered 
your  fathers  with  glory,  which  made  your  countr}'-  great  and 
prosperous  among  nations,  which  sustains  you  in  "your  trials, 
which  brings  tranquility  and  peace  to  your  homes,  and  which 
opens  to  you  the  way  to  eternal  happiness.  You  feel  that  you 
must  defend  this  faith  Avith  your  whole  souls.  But  be  not  delud- 
ed— all  labor  and  effort  will  be  useless  if  you  endeavor  to  repulse 
the  assaults  made  on  you  without  being  firmly  united.  Remove, 
therefore,  any  causes  of  disunion  that  may  exist  among  you. 
And  do  what  is  necessary  to  ensure  that  yowv  unity  may  be  as 

27 


strong  as  it  should  be  among  men  a\  ho  are  fighting  for  the  same 
cause,  especially  when  this  cause  is  of  those  for  the  triumph  of 
which  everybody  should  be  willing  to  sacrifice  sometliing  of 
his  own  opinions.  If  you  wish,  within  the  limits  of  your  strength 
and  according  to  your  imperious  duty,  to  save  the  religion  of  your 
ancestors  from  the  dangers  to  which  it  is  exposed,  it  is  of  the 
first  importance  that  you  show  a  large  degree  of  courage  and 
generosity.  We  feel  sure  that  you  will  show  this  generosity, 
and  by  being  charitable  to  God's  ministers,  you  will  incline  God 
to  be  more  and  more  charitable  towards  yourselves. 

As  for  the  defence  of  religion,  if  you  wish  to  undertake  it 
in  a  worthy  manner,  and  to  carry  it  on  perseveringly  and  effica- 
ciously, two  things  are  first  of  all  necessary:  you  must  model 
your.^elves  so  faithfully  on  the  precoi^ts  of  the  Christian  law 
that  all  3'our  actions  and  your  entire  lives  nmy  do  honor  to  the 
faith  you  profess,  and  then  you  nuist  be  closely  united  with 
those  whose  special  office  it  is  to  watch  over  religion,  with  your 
priests,  your  bishops,  and  above  all  with  this  Apostolic  See, 
which  is  the  pivot  of  the  Catholic  faith  and  of  all  that  can  be 
done  in  its  name.  Thus  armed  for  the  fray,  go  forth  fearlessly 
for  the  defence  of  the  Church;  but  take  care  that  your  trust  is 
placed  entirely  in  God,  for  whose  cause  you  are  working,  and 
never  cease  to  pray  to  Him  for  help. 

For  Us,  as  long  as  you  have  to  struggle  against  danger,  AVe 
Avill  be  heart  and  soul  in  the  midst  of  you;  your  labors,  pains, 
sufi'erings — AVe  will  share  them  all  with  you;  and  pouring  forth 
to  God,  who  has  founded  the  Church  and  ever  preserves  her, 
Our  most  humble  and  instant  prayers.  We  will  emplore  Ilim 
to  bend  a  look  of  merc}^  on  France,  to  save  her  from  the  storms 
that  have  been  let  loose  upon  her,  and,  by  the  intercession  of 
Mary  Immaculate,  to  restore  soon  to  her  the  blessings  of  calm 
and  peace. 

As  a  pledge  of  the.-;e  heavenly  gifts  and  a  proof  of  Our  special 
predilection,  AVe  impart  with  all  Our  heart  the  Apostolic  Benedic- 
tion to  you,  Venerable  Brethren,  to  your  clergy  and  to  the  entire 
French  people. 

Given  at  liome.  at  St.  Peter's,  on  Februarv  11,  in  the  vear 
190G,  the  third  of  Our  Pontificate. 

Pius  X.,  Pope. 

(From  the  London  Tablet.) 

Document  III. 

Containing  the  ])romised  instructions  to  the  Hierarchy  aud  peo- 
ple in  the  present  crisis. 

THE  POPE'S  LETTER. 
T<j  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  France: 

PIUS  X.,  popp:. 

Venerahle  Brethren,  Health  (aid  the  Apostolic  Benediction  : 

AVe  are  about  to  discharge  (o-day  a  very  grave  obligation  of 
Our  office,  an  obligation  which  AVe  assumed  towards  you  when 
We  announced,  after  the  pronnilgation  of  the  law  creating  a  rup- 

28 


ture  between  the  French  Kepublic  and  the  Church,  that  We 
shouki  indicate  at  a  fitting  time  what  it  might  seem  to  Us  ought 
to  be  done  to  defend  and  i^reserve  religion  in  your  country.  We 
have  alloAved  jf-ou  to  wait  until  to-day  for  the  satisfaction  of  your 
desires,  by  reason  not  only  of  the  importance  of  this  great  ques- 
tion, but  also  and  above  all  by  reason  of  the  quite  special  charity 
which  binds  Us  to  you  and  tg  all  your  interests  because  of  the 
unforgettable  services  rendered  to  the  Church  by  your  nation. 

Therefore,  after  having  condemned,  as  was  Our  duty,  this  ini- 
quitous law.  We  have  examined  with  greatest  care  whether  the 
articles  of  the  said  law  would  leave  Us  any  means  of  organizing 
religious  life  in  France  in  such  a  way  as  to  safeguard  from  injury 
the  sacred  principles  on  which  Holy  Church  reposes.  To  this 
end  it  appeared  good  to  Us  both  to  take  the  counsel  of  the  as- 
sembled ei^iscopate  and  to  prescribe  for  your  general  assembly 
the  points  Avhicli  ought  to  be  the  principal  objects  of  your  delib- 
erations. And  now,  knowing  3'our  views  as  well  as  those  of 
several  cardinals,  and  after  having  maturely  reflected  and  im- 
plored by  the  most  fervent  prayers  the  Father  of  Lights,  AVe  see 
that  We  ought  to  confirm  fully  by  Our  Apostolic  authority  the 
almost  unanimous  decision  of  your  assembly. 

"Associations  Cultuelles"  Rejected. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that,  with  reference  to  the  associations  for 
public  worship  as  the  law  establishes  them,  we  decree  that  it  is 
absolutely  impossible  for  them  to  be  formed  without  a  violation 
of  the  sacred  rights  pertaining  to  the  very  life  of  the  Church. 

Putting  aside,  therefore,  these  associations  which  the  know- 
ledge of  Our  duty  forbids  us  to  approve,  it  might  appear  oppor- 
tune to  examine  whether  it  is  lawful  to  make  trial  in  their  place 
of  some  other  sort  of  associations  at  once  legal  and  canonical, 
and  thus  to  preserve  the  Catholics  of  France  from  the  grave  com- 
plications which  menace  them.  Of  a  certainty,  nothing  so  en- 
grosses and  distresses  Us  as  these  eventualities;  and  would  to 
Heaven  that  We  had  some  hope  of  being  able,  without  infringing 
the  rights  of  God,  to  make  this  essay,  and  thus  to  deliver  Our 
well-beloved  sons  from  the  fear  of  such  manifold  and  such 
great  trials. 

But  as  this  hope  fails  Us  while  the  law  remains  what  it  is, 
We  declare  that  it  is  not  permissible  to  try  this  other  kind  of 
association  as  long  as  it  is  not  established  in  a  sure  and  legal 
manner  that  the  Divine  constitution  of  the  Church,  the  immuta- 
ble rights  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  of  the  Bishops,  as  well  as 
their  authority  over  the  necessary  property  of  the  Church  and 
particularly  over  the  sacred  ediflces,  shall  be  irrevocably  placed 
in  the  said  associations  in  full  security.  To  desire  the  contrary 
is  impossible  for  us,  without  betraying  the  sanctity  of  Our  office 
and  bringing  about  the  ruin  of  the  Church  of  France. 

It  remains,  therefore,  for  you,  Venerable  Brethren,  to  set  your- 
selves to  work  and  to  employ  all  meaiis  which  the  law  recognizes 
as  within  the  rights  of  all  citizens  to  arrange  for  and  organize 
religious  worship.  In  a  matter  so  important  and  so  arduous 
you  will  never  have  to  wait  for  Our  assistance.  Absent  in  body. 
We  shall  be  with  you  in  thought  and  in  heart,  and  We  shall  aid 
you  on  every  occasion  with  Our  counsel  and  with  Our  authority. 

29 


Take  up  ^Yith  courage  the  burden  We  impose  upon  you  under  the 
inspiration  of  Our  love  for  the  Church  and  for  your  country, 
and  entrust  the  result  to  the  all-foreseeing  goodness  of  God, 
\^Tiose  help,  AVe  are  firml}'^  convinced,  will  not,  in  His  own  good 
time,  be  wanting  to  France. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  foresee  the  nature  of  the  recriminations 
which  the  enemies  of  the  Church  will  make  against  (^ur  present 
decree  and  Our  orders.  They  will  endeavour  to  persuade  the 
peoj)le  that  We  have  not  had  the  interests  of  the  Church  of 
France  solely  in  view ;  that  the  form  of  the  Republic  in  France 
is  hateful  to  Us,  that  in  order  to  overthrow  it  We  are  seconding 
the  eti'orts  of  the  parties  hostile  to  it;  and  that  We  refuse  to 
France  what  the  Holy  See  has  without  difficulties  accorded  to 
other  nations.  These  recriminations,  witli  others  of  the  same  sort, 
which,  as  can  be  foreseen  from  certain  indications,  will  be  dis- 
seminated among  the  public  in  order  to  excite  irritation.  We 
denounce  now  and  henceforth  with  the  utmost  indignation  as 
false;  and  it  is  incumbent  upon  you.  Venerable  Brethren,  as 
upon  all  good  men,  to  refute  them  in  order  that  they  may  not 
deceive  simple  and  ignorant  neople. 

With  reference  to  the  special  charge  against  the  Church  of 
having  been  more  accommodating  in  a  similar  case  outside 
France,  you  should  explain  that  the  Church  has  acted  in  this  way 
because  the  situations  were  quite  different,  and  above  all  because 
the  Divine  attributes  of  the  hierarchy  Avere,  in  a  certain  measure, 
safeguarded.  If  any  State  has  separated  from  the  Church, 
Avhile  leaving  to  her  the  resource  of  the  liberty  common  to  all 
and  the  free  disposal  of  her  property,  that  State  has  Avithout 
doubt,  and  on  more  than  one  ground,  acted  unjustly;  but,  never- 
theless, it  could  not  be  said  that  it  has  created  for  the  Church 
a  situation  absolutely  intolerable.  (See  Appendix,  Notes  R 
and  C.) 

But  it  is  quite  otherwise  today  in  France;  there  the  makers 
of  this  unjust  laAv  wished  to  make  it  a  law,  not  of  separation, 
but  of  oppression.  Thus  they  affirmed  their  desire  for  peace, 
and  promised  an  understanding;  and  they  are  now  waging  an 
atrocious  war  against  the  religion  of  the  country  and  hurling 
the  brand  of  the  most  violent  discords,  and  thus  exciting  the 
citizens  against  each  other,  to  the  great  detriment,  as  evei\v  one 
sees,  of  the  public  welfare  itself. 

Assuredly  they  will  tax  their  ingenuity  to  throw  upon  Us  tlie 
blame  for  this  conflict  and  for  the  evils  resulting  (herefrom. 
But  whoever  loyally  examines  the  facts  of  which  We  have  sjjoken 
in  the  Encyclical  Vehemcnter  Nos  will  be  able  to  see  whether 
We  have  deserved  the  least  reproach — We,  who,  after  having 
patiently  borne  with  injustice  u])on  injustice  in  Our  love  for  the 
beloved  French  nation,  finally  find  ()urselvos  sunnnoned  to  go 
beyond  the  last  holy  limits  of  Our  Apostolic  duty,  and  AVe 
declare  that  We  will  not  go  beyond  them — or  rather  wlietlier 
the  fault  does  not  lie  entirely  with  those  who  in  hate  of  the 
Apostolic  name  have  gone  to  such  extremities. 

Therefore,  if  they  desire  to  show  Us  their  submission  and 
their  devotion,  let  the  Catholic  men  of  Franco  struggle  for  the 
Church  in  accordance  with  the  directions  We  have  alreaily  given 
them,  that  is  to  say,  Avith   perseverance   and   energy,   and   yet 

30 


without  actiii<i-  in  :i  .seditious  and  violent  manner.  It  is  not  by 
\  iolence,  but  by  firmness,  that,  fortyfying  themselves  in  their 
oood  rio^ht  as  \Yithin  a  citadel,  they  will  succeed  in  breaking 
the  obstinacy  of  their  enemies ;  let  them  well  understand,  as  We 
have  said  and  as  Wc  repeat,  that  their  efforts  will  be  useless 
unless  they  unite  in  a  perfect  understanding  for  the  defence 
of  religion. 

They  know  now  Our  verdict  on  the  subject  of  this  nefarious 
law :  they  should  Avhole-heartedly  conform  to  it,  and  whatever 
the  opinions  of  some  oi-  others  of  them  may  have  been  hitherto 
during  the  discussion  of  the  question,  "We  entreat  them  all  that 
no  one  shall  permit  himself  to  wound  any  one  whomsoever  on 
the  i)rete\"t  that  his  OAvn  wav  of  seeing  things  is  the  best.  What 
(-Ml  be  done  by  concord  of  w^ill  and  union  of  forces,  let  them  learn 
from  their  adversaries;  and  just  as  the  latter  Avere  able  to  impose 
on  the  nntion  the  stigma  of  this  criminal  law,  so  by  their  united 
action  "will  our  people  be  able  to  eliminate  and  remove  it. 

In  this  hard  trial  of  France,  if  all  those  who  wish  to  defend 
with  all  their  power  the  supreme  interests  of  their  country  work 
as  they  ought  to  do  in  union  among  themselves,  with  their  Bishops 
and  wnth  Ourselves  for  the  cause  of  religion,  far  from  despairing 
of  the  welfare  of  the  Church  of  France,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  on  the 
contrary,  that  she  will  be  restored  to  her  former  prosperity  and 
dignity.  We  in  no  way  doubt  that  the  Catholics  will  fully  com- 
ply Avith  Our  directions,  and  conform  with  Our  desires :  and  Wo 
shall  ardently  seek  to  obtain  for  them  by  the  intercession  of 
Mary,  the  Immaculate  Virgin,  the  aid  of  the  Divine  goodness. 

As  a  pledge  of  heavenly  gifts  and  in  testimony  of  Our  paternal 
benevolence.  We  impai't  with  all  Our  heart  the  Apostolic  Bene- 
diction to  you.  Venerable  Brethren,  and  to  the  whole  French 
nation. 

Given  at  Rome,  at  St.  Peter's,  on  August  10,  the  Feast  of  St. 
Lawrence,  the  INfartyr.  in  the  year  190G.  and  the  fourth  of  Our 
Pontificate. 

PIUS  PP.  X. 

(From  the  London  Tablet.) 

Document  IV. 

THE  FRBNCTI  BISHOPS  AND  THEIR  PEOPLE. 
JOINT  PASTORAL. 

To  the  Clergy  and  Faithful  of  France,  Health  ancj  Benediction 
in  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ: 

Dearly  Beloved  Brethren  : 

We  have  all  received  with  the  deepest  gi-atitude  the  Encyclical 
Letter  which  our  Holy  Father  Pope  Pius  X.  has  addressed  to  us 
to  guide  us  in  the  grave  situation  in  which  the  Church  of  France 
now^  finds  herself. 

It  Avas  Avith  confidence  that  w^e  aAvaited  this  Avord  of  the  suc- 
cessor of  Peter,  to  whom  Our  Lord  has  confided  the  care  of  feed- 
ing the  lambs  and  the  sheep,  that  is,  of  leading  the  pastors  and 
the  faithful  in  the  ways  of  truth  and  salvation. 

31 


vVe  made  haste  to  coiiiniunicate  to  you  this  word  of  the  Vicar 
of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  making,  all  the  world  over,  a  deep  impres- 
sion, and  we  have  received  it  with  filial  obedience. 

All  your  Bishops  are  closely  massed  together  round  the  Sov- 
ereign Pontitl',  in  the  midst  of  the  sad  trials  of  the  present  time, 
having  along  with  him  but  one  heart  and  one  soul  of  love  for  the 
Church  and  for  France. 

And  your  priests  are  solid  to  a  man  with  their  Bishops,  in  abso- 
lute and  generous  obedience  to  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  and  declare 
aloud  their  readiness  for  all  sacrifices  in  order  to  continue  to 
devote  themselves  to  your  souls. 

Our  Most  Holy  Father  Pius  X.,  in  addressing  to  us  this  Encyc- 
lical Letter,  has  fulfilled  the  charge  which  he  received  from  God, 
to  preserve  intact  the  deposit  of  truth  and  the  constitution  of  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church. 

That  constitution  has  for  its  essential  base  the  authority  of 
the  hierarchy  divinel}^  established  by  Jesus  Christ.  The  Church 
is  a  societ}'  governed  by  pastors,  of  whom  the  Pope  is  the  head, 
and  to  whom  alone  belongs  the  right  of  rule  in  all  that  concerns 
the  exercise  of  religion.  Now  the  Law  of  Separation  pretends 
to  impose  on  the  Church  in  this  country,  by  the  sole  authority 
of  the  civil  power,  a  new  form  of  organization.  It  declares  that 
in  the  exercise  of  divine  worship  it  no  longer  recognizes  any  one 
but  associations  of  citizens,  combining  and  regulating  themselves 
according  to  their  own  will,  according  to  the  statutes  of  their 
own  making,  which  the}^  would  always  be  free  to  modify  at  will. 
If,  in  one  of  the  articles  of  this  Law,  the  necessary  principle  of 
the  Catholic  hierarchy  seems  to  be  implicitly  contained,  it  is  only 
indicated  in  vague  and  obscure  terms,  whilst  it  is  but  too  clearly- 
thrown  over  in  another  article  which,  in  ease  of  disputes,  places 
the  supreme  decision  in  the  hands  of  the  Council  of  State,  that 
is  to  say  of  the  civil  power.  It  would  therefore  be  thrusting  a 
lay  constitution  on  the  Church,  and  Pins  X.  has  condemned,  and, 
indeed,  could  not  but  condenni  it.  He  has  decreed  that  ''with 
reference  to  the  Associations  for  Public  "\^'orship  as  the  law  es- 
tablishes them,  it  is  absolutely  impossible  for  them  to  be  formed 
without  a  violation  of  the  sacred  rights  pertaining  to  the  verv  life 
of  the  Church." 

In  his  desire  to  save  the  Catholics  of  France  from  the  grave 
difficulties  that  threaten  them,  the  Holy  Father  has  examined 
whether  there  was  any  way  of  reconciling  the  (f^ssoeiafions  cul- 
tucllcs  with  Canon  Law:  "Would  to  Heaven  that  AVe  had  some 
hope  of  being  able,  without  infringing  the  rights  of  God.  to  make 
this  essay,  and  thus  to  deliver  Our  well-beloved  sons  from  the 
fear  of  such  manifold  and  such  great  trials.  But  as  this  hope 
fails  Us  while  the  law  remains  what  it  is,  We  declare  that  it  is 
not  permissible  to  try  this  otiier  kind  of  association,  as  long  as  it 
is  not  established  in  a  sure  and  legal  manner  that  the  Divine  con- 
stitution of  the  Church,  the  iuimutable  rights  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff'  and  of  the  Bisho|)s,  as  well  as  their  autiiority  over  the 
necessary  property  of  the  Church  and  particularly  over  the 
sacred  edifices  shall  be  irrevocably  placed  in  the  said  associations 
in  full  security." 

In  truth,  dearly  beloved  brethren,  so  long  as  the  I^aw  stands  a=! 
it  is,  and  whatever  efforts  uiay  be  nuule  to  establish  legal  asso 

32 


ciations  placed  under  the  authority  of  the  Pope  and  of  the 
Bishops,  it  would  still  remain  that  this  authority  would  only  be 
sovereign  so  long  as  it  should  please  the  members  to  recognize 
it;  and  if  they  wished  to  withdraw  themselves  from  it,  it  would 
belong  to  a  lay  tribunal,  in  the  last  resort,  to  judge  of  the  legiti- 
macy of  their  pretensions.  It  would  be  lawful  for  it  to  hand 
over  to  the  abettors  of  revolt  against  the  Church  the  proprietor- 
shijD  of  her  property  and  the  use  of  her  churches. 

It  would,  therefore,  be  a  huge  self-deception  to  think  and  to 
say  that  in  rejecting  these  Associations  the  Pope  has  "not  had  the 
interests  of  the  Church  of  France  solely  in  view,  that  he  has 
had  another  design  foreign  to  religion,  that  the  form  of  the 
Eepublic  in  Franco  is  hateful  to  him."  Pius  X.  denounces  "with 
the  utmost  indignation  as*  false  .  .  .  these  recriminations  with 
others  of  the  same  sort  which  will  be  disseminated  among  the 
public  in  order  to  excite  irritation."  We,  dearly  beloved  breth- 
ren, join  our  protests  to  those  of  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ.  No, 
it  is  not  with  political  interests  that  Ave  are  preoccupied.  For 
many  years  past  we  have  conformed  to  the  directions  of  the  Holy 
See,  which  has  called  upon  us  to  unite  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
defending  the  Catholic  religion  and  to  accept  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment Avhich  France  has  chosen.  It  is  now  a  long  time  since 
one  of  our  number  did  not  hesitate  to  declare:  "If  one  desires 
impartially  and  in  good  faith  to  regard  the  state  of  opinion  in 
our  country  two  things  may  be  stated  as  certain :  France  has  no 
wish  to  change  her  f-^rm  of  government,  neither  has  she  any 
wish  'for  religious  persecution."*  And  to-day  all  of  us  repeat 
and  declare  unanimously  that  what  we  demand  is  that  anti- 
Christian  laws  should  not,  contrary  to  the  will  of  France,  be 
made  into  the  very  constitution  of  the  Eepublic. 

The  venerable  Cardinal  Guibert,  at  the  close  of  his  long  and 
holy  career,  in  188G,  and  when  the  first  attack  was  being  made 
upon  the  Christian  schools  and  other  religious  congregations, 
addressed  to  the  Head  of  the  State  these  grave  and  patriotic 
words  which  it  is  now  useful  to  recall :  "In  continuing  upon  the 
course  upon  which  it  has  entered,  the  Republic  can  do  much 
harm  to  religion.  .  .  but  it  will  not  succeed  in  killing  it.  The 
Church  has  known  other  perils,  she  has  gone  through  other 
storms,  and  still  she  lives  in  the  heart  of  France.  ...  It  is  not  the 
clergy,  it  is  not  the  Church  that  can  be  accused  of  working  for 
the  ruin  of  the  political  establishment  of  Avhich  you  are  the 
guardian;  you  know  that  revolt  is  not  an  arm  on  which  Ave  ai-e 
accustomed  to  rely.  The  clergy  will  continue  to  suffer  in  pa- 
tience; they  will  pray  for  their  enemies  and  beseech  God  to  en- 
lighten and  inspire  them  Avith  juster  vieAvs;  but  those  Avho  haA^e 
desired  this  impious  Avar  Avill,  by  it,  bring  about  their  oAvn  de- 
struction, and  there  will  be  great  ruin  before  our  beloved  country 
again  sees  prosperous  days.  The  passion  for  destruction 
of  which  more  than  one  sign  makes  us  fear  the  not 
distant  awakening,  will  create  dangers  far  graA^er  than  pre- 
tended abuses  Avith  Avhich  the  clergy  are  charged.  And  God 
grant  that  in  this  dreadful  storm,  in  which  passions  let  loose 
Avill  no  longer  find  any  moral  barrier  in  their  way,  Ave  may  not 

*Reply  of   the   Cardinal   Archbishop   of  Parifi   to   the   Catholics   who   con- 
sulted him  on  their  social  duty  March  2,  1891. 

33 


see  the  fortunes  of  our  country  darkened  and  its  independence 
jeopardized.  Come  to  the  end  of  a  long  life  (added  the  ven- 
erable old  man)',  I  wish,  before  going  to  render  an  account  of 
my  stewardship  to  God,  to  clear  myself  of  any  responsibility  for 
such  misfortunes.  But  I  cannot  close  this  letter  without  ex- 
pressing the  hope  that  France  will  never  allow  herself  to  be 
stripped  of  the  sacred  beliefs  which  have  made  her  strength  and 
her  glory  in  the  past,  and  have  secured  her  the  first  place  among 
the  nations.  "Letter  of  Cardinal  Guibert  to  the  President  of  the 
Republic,  June  22,  1896." 

And  we,  too,  dearly  beloved  brethren,  wish  to  clear  ourselves 
of  any  responsibility  in  view  of  the  calamities  with  which  our 
country  is  threatened.  The  Law  of  Separation,  such  as  it  is, 
would  deprive  France  not  only  of  it§  title  of  a  Catholic  nation, 
but  of  the  real  freedom  for  the  practice  of  the  religion  which 
has  been  its  life  and  greatness  for  so  many  centuries,  and  by 
which  alone  in  the  future  its  order  and  peace  can  be  secured. 
As  Catholic  Bishops  and  Frenchmen,  how  can  we  give  our  co- 
operation to  the  carrying  out  of  such  a  Law?  Pius  X.,  dearly 
beloved  brethren,  invites  us  to  take  all  the  means  which  '"the 
law  recognizes  as  within  the  rights  of  all  citizens  to  arrange  for 
and  organize  public  Avorship.''  And  we  shall  give  you,  at  the 
proper  time,  the  instructions  necessary  for  that  i)urpose,  accord- 
ing as  occasion  may  arise. 

AVe  would  fain  hope  that  our  country  may  still  be  spared  a 
religious  war.  The  Catholics  of  France  demand  that  they  may 
not  have  for  the  practice  of  their  religion  imposed  upon  them, 
in  the  name  of  a  law  which  professes  to  assure  them  '"liberty  of 
conscience  and  to  guarantee  them  freedom  of  worship"'  a  con- 
stitution which  they  cannot  conscientiously  accept;  that  it  be 
remembered  that  in  no  case  or  country  can  the  legal  organization 
of  Catholic  worship  be  regulated  except  in  accord  with  the  su- 
preme Head  of  the  Church;  and  that  if  people  are  determined 
on  the  sejDaration  of  Church  and  State  at  all  costs,  we  should 
at  least  be  left  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  property  that  is  ours 
and  of  the  liberties  of  the  common  law,  as  in  other  countries  that 
are  really  free.  AVe  cannot  believe  that  such  demands  will  fall 
without  a  hearing.  'Tn  this  hard  trial  of  France,  if  all  those 
who  wish  to  defend  with  all  their  power  the  supreme  interests 
of  their  country  work  as  they  ought  to  do  in  union  among  them- 
selves with  their  Bishops  and  with  Ourselves  for  the  cause  of 
religion,  far  from  despairing  of  the  welfare  of  the  Church  of 
France,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  on  the  contrar}^,  that  she  will  be  re- 
stored to  her  former  prosperity  and  dignity.  AVe  in  no  way 
doubt  that  the  Catholics  will  fully  comply  with  Our  directions, 
and  conform  with  Our  desires;  and  AA^e  shall  ardently  seek  to 
obtain  for  them  by  the  intercession  of  Mary,  the  Immaculate 
Virgin,  the  aid  of  the  Divine  goodness." 

Union  of  hearts,  filial  obedience,  a  generous  spirit  of  sacrifice, 
and  recourse  to  fervent  prayer:  such  is  the  action  which  is  traced 
for  us  by  the  Sovereign  Pont i IT,  and  which  we  desire  to  .see 
realized. 

l'\)rgetting  all  past  diU'cnMici's,  all  of  you,  dearly  beloved 
biethren,  along  with  your  bishops  and  priests,  will  have  but  one 
heart  and  one  soul  in  the  maintenance  and  defence  of  our  holy 

34 


religion,  Avhilst  we  follow  the  rules  laid  down  by  supreme  au- 
thority Avith  perseverance  and  energy,  but  without  sedition  or 
violence.  If  an  attempt  should  be  made  to  form,  contrary  to  the 
will  of  the  Head  of  the  Church,  associations  which  could  be 
Catholic  in  nothing  but  name,  none  of  you  under  any  pretext 
whatever  will  give  them  your  names. 

Your  pastors  are  determined  to  suffer  deprivation  and  poverty 
rather  than  betray  their  dutj^;  and  you  will  understand  that 
all  the  faithful  are  bound  to  come  to  their  assistance,  and  to 
contribute,  each  one  according  to  his  means,  towards  the  upkeep 
of  divine  w^orship  and  the  maintenance  of  its  ministers. 

And  in  conclusion,  seeing  that  our  cause  is  the  cause  of  God. 
without  whose  helj)  all  our  efforts  would  be  powerless  to  make 
it  triumph,  we  shall  betake  ourselves  to  prayer  with  redoubled 
instancy  and  fervour.  And  we  shall  beseech  the  Heart  of  Jesus, 
'"who  loves  the  Franks,"  through  the  intercession  of  the  !M()st 
Holy  Virgin  Mary,  who  has  showered  upon  our  country  the 
marks  of  her  predilection,  to  grant  that  this  country,  which  is 
so  dear  to  us,  may  remain  staunch  to  her  Christian  calling,  and 
ma3%  under  the  tegis  of  her  ancient  faith,  run  the  course  of  her 
glorious  destiny. 

This  our  present  letter  is  to  be  read  from  the  pulpit  of  everv 
church  in  France  on  Sunday,  September  23. 

Given  at  Paris  at  our  General  Meeting  on  September  7,  1906. 

Here  follow  the  signatures  of  IS  Archbishops  and  (>7  Bishops, 
comprising  the  whole  hierarchy  in  France. 

Document  V. 
THE  THIRD  ENCYCLICAL  LETTER. 

It  is  mainly  intended  to  refute  the  calumnious  charges  made 
against  the  Holy  See  in  the  question  at  issue,  and  to  state  the 
reasons  why  other  recent  legislative  measures,  regulating  relig- 
ious worship,  cannot  be  accepted  by  the  Catholic  Hierarchy  in 
France. 

Venerable  Brethren  and  Beloved  Sons, 

Health  and  Apostolic  Benediction  : 

Once  again  the  serious  events  which  have  been  precipitated  in 
your  noble  country  compel  Us  to  write  to  the  Church  of  France 
to  sustain  her  in  her  trials,  and  to  comfort  her  in  her  sorrow. 
When  the  children  are  suffering  the  heart  of  the  Father  ought 
more  than  ever  to  go  out  to  them.  And  so,  now  that  We  see 
you  suffer,  from  the  depths  of  our  fatherly  heart,  floods  of  ten- 
derness break  forth  more  copiously  than  ever,  and  flow  to  you 
with  the  greater  comfort  and  sweetness.  These  suft'erings.  Ven- 
erable Brothers  and  beloved  sons,  now  find  a  poAverful  echo 
throughout  the  whole  Catholic  Church;  but  We  feel  them  more 
deeply  still  and  We  sympathise  with  a  pity  which  grows  with 
your  trials  and  seems  to  increase  day  by  day.  But  Avith  these 
cruel  sorroAvs  the  Master  has,  it  is  true,  mingled  a  consolation 
than  Avhich  none  can  be  dearer  to  our  heart.     It  springs  from 

35 


your  unshakable  attachment  to  the  Church,  and  from  your  un- 
failing fidelity  to  this  Apostolic  See,  and  from  the  firm  and 
deeply  founded  unity  that  reigns  among  you.  On  this  fidelity 
and  union  "We  confidentl}'^  reckoned  from  the  first,  for  We  were 
too  well  aware  of  the  nobleness  and  generosity  of  the  French 
heart  to  have  any  fear  that  on  the  field  of  battle  disunion  would 
find  its  wa}^  into  your  ranks.  Equally  great  is  the  joy  we  feel 
at  the  magnificent  spectacle  3'^ou  are  noAv  giving  to  the  world ; 
and  with  our  high  praise  of  you  before  the  whole  Church,  We 
give  thanks  from  the  depths  of  Our  heart  to  the  Father  of 
mercies,  the  Author  of  all  good.  Recourse  to  God,  so  infinitely 
good,  is  all  the  more  necessary  because,  far  from  abating,  the 
struggle  grows  fiercer  and  expands  unceasingly.  It  is  no  longer 
only  the  Christian  faith  that  they  would  uproot  at  all  costs  from 
the  hearts  of  the  people ;  it  is  any  belief  which  lifting  man  above 
the  horizon  of  this  world  would  supernaturally  bring  back  his 
wearied  eyes  to  heaven.  Illusion  on  the  subject  is  no  longer 
possible.  War  has  been  declared  against  everything  supernat- 
ural, because  behind  the  supernatural  stands  God,  and  Ijecause 
it  is  God  that  they  want  to  tear  out  of  the  mind  and  heart  of 
man.  The  war  will  be  bitter  and  without  respite  on  the  part 
of  those  who  Avage  it.  That,  as  it  goes  on,  harder  trials  than  those 
you  have  hitherto  known  await  you,  is  possible  and  even  probable. 
.Common  prudence  calls  upon  each  of  you  to  prepare  for  them, 
and  this  you  will  do  simply,  valiantl}^,  and  full  of  confidence, 
sure  that  however  fiercely  the  fight  may  rage,  victory  will  in  the 
end  remain  in  your  hands.  The  pledge  of  this  victory  is  your 
union  first  of  all  among  j'ourselves,  and  secondly  with  this  Apos- 
tolic See.  This  twofold  union  will  make  you  invincible,  and 
against  it  all  efforts  will  break.  Our  enemies  have  on  this  been 
under  no  misapprehensions.  From  the  outset,  and  with  the 
greatest  clearness  of  vision,  they  determined  on  their  objective: 
First  to  separate  you  from  Us  and  the  Chair  of  Peter,  and  then 
to  sow  disorder  among  you.  From  then  till  now  tliey  have  made 
no  change  in  their  tactics;  the}''  have  pursued  their  end  without 
rest  and  by  every  means;  some  with  comprehensive  and  catching 
phrases;  others  Avith  the  most  brutal  cynicism,  threats  and  vio- 
lence; all  these  have  been  brought  into  play  and  employed.  But 
your  clear-sighted  fidelity  has  Avrecked  all  these  attempts.  There- 
upon, thinking  that  the  best  Avay  to  separate  you  from  Us  was 
to  shatter  your  confidence  in  the  Apostolic  See,  they  have  not 
hesitated  from  the  tribune  and  in  the  press,  to  throw  discredit 
upon  Our  acts  by  misrepresenting  and  sometime^  cvon  by  cal- 
umniating Our  intentions 

THE    CHURCH    NOT    SEEKING    REIJGIOUS    WAU. 

The  Church,  they  said,  is  seeking  to  arouse  religious  war  in 
France,  and  is  summoning  lo  her  aid  the  violent  iKTsecution 
Avhich  has  been  the  object  of  her  prayers.  What  a  strange  accu- 
sation! Founded  by  llim,  who  came  to  bring  peace  upon  earth, 
the  Church  could  only  seek  religious  Avar  by  repudiating  her 
high  mission  and  belying  it  before  the  eyes  of  all.  To  this  mis- 
sion of  patient  sweetness  and  love  she  rests  and  Avill  remain 
always  faithful.  Besides,  the  Avhole  Avorld  noAv  knows  that  if 
]ien(("  of  conscience  is  broken   in  France,  that  is  not  (he  Avork 

36 


of  the  Church,  but  of  her  enemies.  Fair-minded  men,  even  though 
not  of  our  faith,  recognise  that  if  there  is  a  struggle  on  the 
question  of  religion  in  j'our  beloved  country,  it  is  not  because 
the  Church  Avas  the  first  to  unfui-l  the  flag,  but  because  war  was 
declared  against  her.  During  the  last  twenty-five  years  she  has 
had  to  undergo  this  warfare.  That  is  the  truth ;  and  the  proof 
of  it  is  seen  in  the  declarations  made  and  repeated  over  and  over 
again  in  the  Press,  at  meetings,  at  Masonic  congresses,  and  even 
in  Parliament,  as  well  as  in  the  attacks  which  have  been  pro- 
gressively and  systematically  directed  against  her.  These  facts 
are  undeniable,  and  no  argument  can  ever  make  away  with  them. 
The  Church  then  does  net  wish  for  war,  and  religious  war  least 
of  all.    To  ainrm  the  contrary  is  an  outrageous  calumny. 

NO    PERSECUTION. 

Nor  has  she  any  desire  for  violent  persecution.  She  knows 
what  persecution  is,,  for  she  has  suffered  it  in  all  times  and  in 
all  places.  Centuries  passed  in  bloodshed  gave  her  the  right  to 
say  with  a  holy  boldness  that  she  does  not  fear  it,  and  that  as 
often  as  may  be  necessary  she  will  be  able  to  meet  it.  But  per- 
secution is  in  itself  an  evil,  for  it  is  injustice  and  prevents  man 
from  w'orshipping  God  in  freedom.  The  Church  then  cannot 
desire  it,  even  with  a  view  to  the  good  w^hich  Providence  in  its 
infinite  wisdom  ever  draws  out  of  it.  Besides,  persecution  is  not 
only  evil,  it  is  also  suffering,  and  there  we  have  a  fresh  reason 
why  the  Church,  who  is  the  best  of  mothers,  wall  never  seek  it. 
This  persecution  which  she  is  reproached  as  having  provoked, 
and  which  they  declare  the}^  have  refused,  is  now  being  actually 
inflicted  upon  her.  Have  they  not  within  these  last  days  evicted 
from  their  houses  even  the  Bishops  who  are  most  venerable  by 
their  age  and  virtues,  driven  the  seminarists  from  the  large  and 
small  seminaries,  and  entered  upon  the  expulsion  of  the  eurats 
from  their  presbyteries?  The  whole  Catholic  world  has  watched 
this  spectacle  with  sadness,  and  has  not  hesitated  to  give  the 
name  which  they  deserved  to  such  acts  of  violence. 

CHURCH  PROPERTY. 

As  for  the  ecclesiastical  property,  which  we  are  accused  of  aban- 
doning, it  is  important  to  remark,  that  this  property  w'as  partly 
the  patrimony'  of  the  jDoor  and  the  patrimony,  more  sacred 
still,  of  the  dead.  It  is  not  permissible  to  the  Church  to  aban- 
don or  surrender  it;  she  only  lets  it  be  taken  from  her  by  vio- 
lence. Nobody  will  believe  that  she  has  deliberately  abandoned, 
except  under  the  pressure  of  the  most  overwhelming  motives, 
what  w^as  confided  to  her  keeping,  and  what  was  so  necessary  for 
the  exercise  of  worship,  for  the  maintenance  of  sacred  edifices, 
for  the  instruction  of  her  clergy,  and  for  the  support  of-  her 
ministers.  It  was  only  Avhen  perfidiously  placed  in  the  positioii 
of  having  to  choose  between  material  ruin  and  consent  to  the 
violation  of  her  Constitution,  which  is  of  divine  origin,  that 
the  Church  refused,  at  the  cost  of  poverty,  to  allow  tlie  work  of 
God  to  be  touched  in  her.  Her  property,  then,  has  been  wrested 
from  her;  it  was  not  she  who  abandoned  it.  Consequently,  to 
declare  ecclesiastical  property  unclaimed  on  a  given  date  unless 
the  Church  had  by  then  created  within  herself  a  new  organism; 

37 


to  subject  this  creation  to  conditions  in  rank  opposition  to  the 
divine  Constitution  of  the  Church,  which  was  thus  compelled  to 
reject  them;  to  transfer  this  proijcrty  to  third  i)arli(*s  as  if  it  had 
become  ownerless,  and  finally  to  assert  that  in  thus  acting  there 
was  no  spoliation  of  the  Church,  but  onl}'  a  disposal  of  property 
abandoned  by  her — this  is  not  merely  argument  of  transpar- 
ent soi)histry,  but  adding  insult  to  the  most  cruel  spoliation. 
This  spoliation  is  undeniable  in  spite  of  vain  attempts  at  palliat- 
ing it  by  declaring  that  no  moral  person  existed  to  whom  the 
property  might  be  handed  over;  for  the  State  has  power  to 
confer  civil  personality  on  whomsoever  the  public  good  de- 
mands that  it  should  be  granted  to,  establishments  that  are  Cath- 
olic as  Avell  as  others.  In  any  case  it  would  have  been  easy  for  the 
State  not  to  have  subjected  the  formation  of  cultural  associations 
to  conditions  in  direct  opposition  to  the  divine  constitution  of 
the  Church  which  they  are  supposed  to  serve.  And  yet  this  is 
precisely  what  was  done  in  the  matter  of  the  cultural  associa- 
tions. They  were  organised  in  such  a  w'ay  that  its  dispositions 
on  this  subject  ran  directly  counter  to  those  rights  which,  derived 
from  her  constitution,  are  essential  to  the  Church,  notably  as 
affecting  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  the  inviolable  base  given 
to  His  Avork  by  the  Divine  Master  himself.  Moreover,  the  law 
conferred  on  these  associations  powers  which  are  the  exclusive 
prerogative  of  ecclesiastical  authority  both  in  the  matter  of  the 
exercise  of  worship  and  of  (he  proprietorship  and  administra- 
tion of  property.  And/lastly,  not  only  are  these  associations 
Avithdrawn  from  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  but  they  are  made 
judicially  answerable  to  the  civil  authority.  These  are  the  rea- 
sons which  have  driven  Us  in  Our  previous  Encyclicals  to  con- 
demn these  cultural  associations  in  spite  of  the  heavy  sacrifices 
which  such  condemnation  involved.  We  have  also  been  accused 
of  prejudice  and  inconsistency.  It  has  been  said  that  AVe  had 
refused  to  approve  in  France  what  We  had  approved  in  Ger- 
many. But  this  charge  is  equally  lacking  in  foundation  and 
justice.  For  although  the  German  law  was  blamable  on  many 
points,  and  has  been  merely  tolerated  in  order  to  avoid  greater 
evils,  the  cases  were  quite  different,  for  that  law  contained  an 
express  recognition  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy,  which  the  French 
law  does  not.     (See  Appendix,  Note  B.) 

THE   ANNUAL   DECLARATION. 

As  regards  the  annual  declaration  demanded  for  the  exercise 
of  worship,  it  did  not  offer  the  full  legal  security  which  one  had 
a  right  to  desire.  Nevertheless — though  in  principle  gatherings 
of  the  faithful  in  church  have  none  of  the  constituent  elements 
proper  to  ])ublic  meetings,  and  it  would,  in  fact,  be  odious  to 
assimilate  them — the  Cliui'ch  could,  in  order  to  avoid  gre:iter 
evils,  have  brought  herself  to  tolerate  this  declaration.  But  by 
providiug  that  Ihe  ''curate  or  olliciating  priest  would  no  louger," 
in  his  church,  "be  anything  more  than  an  occupier  without  any 
judicial  title  or  power  to  perform  any  acts  of  administration,'* 
there  has  been  imposed  on  ministers  of  religion  in  the  very 
exercise  of  their  ministry  a  situation  so  humiliating  and  vague 
that,  under  such  conditions,  it  was  impossible  to  accept  the  dec 
la  rati  on. 

38 


THE  NEW  LAW. 

There  remains  for  consideration  the  law  recently  voted  by  the 
tAvo  Chambers.  From  the  point  of  view  of  ecclesiastical  prop- 
ert}'^,  this  law  is  a  law  of  spoliation  and  confiscation,  and  it 
has  completed  the  stripping  of  the  Church.  Although  her  Divine 
Founder  was  born  poor  in  a  manger,  and  died  poor  upon  the 
Cross,  although  she  herself  has  known  poverty  from  her  cradle, 
the  property  that  came  to  her  was  none  the  less  hers,  and  no 
one  had  the  right  to  deprive  her  of  it.  Her  ownership,  indisputa- 
ble from  every  point  of  view,  had  been,  moreover,  officially  sanc- 
tioned by  (he  State,  which  could  not  consequentlj^  violate  it. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  exercise  of  worship,  this  law  has 
organised  anarchy;  it  is  the  consecration  of  uncertainty  and 
caprice.  Uncertainty  whether  places  of  worship,  always  liable 
to  be  diverted  from  their  purpose,  are  meanwhile  to  be  placed, 
or  not  placed,  at  the  disposal  of  the  clergy  and  the  faithful; 
uncertainty  whether  they  shall  be  reserved  to  them  or  not,  and 
for  how  long;  whilst  an  arbitrary  administration  regulates  the 
condition  of  their  use,  which  is  rendered  unusuall}^  precarious. 
Public  Avorship  will  be  in  as  many  diverse  situations  as  there  arc 
parishes  in  France ;  in  each  parish  the  priest  will  be  at  the  discre- 
tion of  the  municipal  authority.  And  thus  ah  opening  for  con- 
flict has  been  organised  from  one  end  of  the  countrj'^  to  the  other. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  an  obligation  to  meet  all  sorts  of 
heav}'  charges,  whilst  at  the  same  time  there  are  clraconian  re- 
strictions upon  the  resources  by  which  they  are  to  be  met.  Thus, 
though  of  but  yesterday,  this  law  has  evoked  already  manifold 
and  severe  criticisms  from  men  belonging  indiscriminately  to 
all  political  jonrties  and  all  shades  of  religious  belief.  These 
criticisms  alone  are  sufficient  judgment  of  the  law.  It  is  easy 
to  see,  Venerable  Brethren  and  beloved  sons,  from  what  We  have 
just  recalled  to  you,  that  this  law  is  an  aggravation  of  the  Law 
of  Sei^aration,  and  We  cannot  therefore  do  otherwise  than  con- 
demn it.  The  vague  and  ambiguous  wording  of  some  of  its  arti- 
cles places  the  end  pursued  by  our  enemies  in  a  new  light.  Their 
object  is,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out,  the  destruction  of  the 
Church  and  the  dechristianisation  of  France,  but  without  peo- 
ple's attending  to  it  or  even  noticing  it.  If  their  enterprise  had 
been  really  popular,  as  they  pretend,  they  would  not  have  hesi- 
tated to  pursue  it  with  visor  raised,  and  to  take  the  whole  respon- 
sibilit3^  But,  far  from  assuming  this  responsibility,  they  try  to 
clear  themselves  of  it  and  deny  it,  and,  in  order  to  succeed  the 
better,  fling  it  upon  the  Church,  their  victim.  This  is  the  most 
striking  of  all  the  proofs  that  their  evil  work  does  not  respond  to 
the  wishes  of  the  counUy,  It  is  in  vain  that  after  driving  us  to  the 
cruel  necessity  of  rejecting  the  hnvs  that  have  been  made — seeing 
the  evils  they  have  drawn  upon  the  countrj^,  and  feeling  the  uni- 
versal reprobation  which,  like  a  slow  tide  is  rising  around  them 
— they  seek  to  lead  public  opinion  astraj^  and  to  make  the  respon- 
sibility for  these  evils  fall  upon  Us.  Their  attempt  will  not 
succeed. 

AN  APPEAL  TO  IIISTOKY. 

As  for  Ourselves,  We  have  accomplished  Our  duty,  as  every 
other  Roman  Pontiff  would  have  done.     The  high  charge  with 

39 


which  it  has  pleased  Heaven  to  invest  Us,  in  spite  of  Our  un- 
worthiness.  as  also  the  Christian  faith  itself,  which  yon  profess 
with  Us,  dictated  to  Us  Our  conduct.  We  could  not  have  acted 
otherwise  withou  trampling  under  foot  Our  conscience,  without 
being  false  to  the  oath,  which  "We  took  on  mounting  the  chair  of 
Peter,  and  without  violating  the  Catholic  hierarchy,  the  founda- 
tion given  to  the  Church  by  our  Savior  Jesus  Christ.  We  await, 
then,  without  fear  the  verdict  of  history.  History  will  tell  how 
We,  with  Our  eyes  fixed  immutably  upon  the  defence  of  the 
higher  rights  of  God.  have  neither  wished  to  liumiliate  the  civil 
power  nor  to  combat  a  form  of  government,  but  to  safeguard  the 
inviolable  work  of  our  Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Christ.  It  will 
say  that  We  have  defended  5>ou,  Our  beloved  sons,  with  all  the 
strength  of  Our  great  love;  that  what  we  have  demanded  and 
now  demand  for  the  Church,  of  which  the  French  Church  is 
the  elder  daughter  and  an  integral  part,  is  respect  for  its  hierar- 
chy and  inviolability  of  its  property  and  liberty;  that  if  Our 
demand  had  been  granted  religious  peace  would  not  have  been 
troubled  in  France,  and  that  the  day  it  is  listened  to,  that  peace 
so  much  desired  will  be  restored  to  the  country.  And,  lastly, 
history  will  say  that  if  sure  beforehand  of  your  magnanimous 
generosity,  We  have  not  hesitated  to  tell  you  that  the  hour  of 
sacrifice  had  struck,  it  is  to  remind  the  world,  in  the  name  of  the 
Master  of  all  things,  that  men  here  below  should  feed  their  minds 
upon  the  thoughts  of  a  higher  sort  than  those  of  the  j^erishable 
contingencies  of  this  life,  and  that  the  supreme  and  intangible 
joy  of  the  human  soul  on  earth  is  that  of  duty  supernaturally 
carried  out,  cost  what  it  may,  and  so  God  honored,  served  and 
loved,  in  spite  of  all.  Confident  that  the  Immaculate  Virgin, 
Daughter  of  the  Father,  Mother  of  the  Word,  and  Spouse  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  will  obtain  for  you  fromthe  most  holy  and  adorable 
Trinity  better  days,  and  as  a  token  of  the  calm  which  We  firmly 
hope  will  follow  the  storm,  it  is  from  the  depths  of  Our  heart 
that  We  impart  Our  Apostolic  Blessing  to  you.  Venerable  Breth- 
ren, as  well  as  to  your  clergy  and  the  whole  French  people. 

Given  at  Rome,  at  St.  Peter's,  on  the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany, 
January  G,  1907,  the  fourth  year  of  our  Pontificate. 

PIUS  X.,  Pope. 
Appendix — Note  A. 

The  Church  and  the  State  in  the  American  Republic: 

Those  who  profess  to  see  in  the  "Separation  Law"  of  France 
a  parallel  to  the  relations  of  Church  and  State  in  the  United 
States  will  discover  their  uiistnke  in  reading  the  i)oints  of  contrast 
indicated  by  jVf.  Boyer  de  Bouillac  in  a  lecture  recently  given  in 
Paris.     He  pointed  out  that — 

1.  The  word  Creator  occurs  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence. 

2.  Public  blasphemy  is  an  indictable  offense  punished  by  law. 

3.  In  moments  of  national  i)eril  or  disaster  the  President  may 
prescribe  a  day  of  fasting  and  praj^er, 

4.  Each  5'ear  a  day  of  thanksgiving  to  the  Deity  is  proclaimed. 

40 


5.  Most  of  the  States  prescribe  rest  from  manual  labor  on 
Sunday. 

G.  Clergymen  are  exempt  from  service  in  the  militia,  and  from 
military  service  in  time  of  war.  Insults  to  clergymen  in  the  exer 
cise  of  their  functions  are  severel}^  punished. 

7.  Dioceses,  parishes,  hospitals,  colleges,  religious  congrega- 
tions may  be  civilly  incorporated,  and  in  that  case,  although 
limits  may.be  set  to  their  real  property,  no  limit  is  set  to  their 
personal  property. 

8.  Churches,  hospitals,  and  asylums  are  very  commonly  ex 
empt  from  taxation. 

9.  Freedom  of  speech  is  as  sacred  in  the  pulpit  as  on  the 
hustings. 

10.  The  right  of  association  is  full  and  entire  for  the  laity, 
diocesan  priests,  and  religious  orders. 

11.  Nothing  prevents  the  meetings  of  Bishops,  or  their  rela 
tions  with  the  Pope.  All  these  points  are  diametrically  opposed 
to  the  Separation  Law  passed  by  the  French  Chambers  on  De- 
cember 9,  1905,  and  like  the  organic  articles  added  by  Napoleon  to 
the  Concordat  without  the  consent  of  the  Holy  See.  This  law  is 
either  separatist  unto  apostas}^,  or  meddlesome  unto  oppression. 
The  United  States  Laws  and  customs  respect  natural  and  revealed 
religion,  while  the  French  rulers  aim  at  exterminating  them. 

Appendix — Note   B. 

DIFFERENCE    BETWEEN    THE    GERMAN     AND    THE 
FRENCH   ASSOCIATIONS    OF    WORSHIP. 

From  the  Pastoral  Letter  of  Monsignor  Touchet,  Bishop  of 
Orleans,  on  the  French  Associations  of  Worship : 

Here  a  difficulty  presents  itself;  one  which  the  Holy  Father 
himself  in  his  letter  to  the  French  Bishops,  August  10,  190G,  inti- 
mates, will  be  urged  against  us,  and  which  we,  as  shepherds  of 
the  people,  have  to  answer.  Our  enemies  are  very  busy  just 
now,  thrusting  it  in  our  faces.  It  is  this:  Why  does  not  the 
Pope  tolerate  in  France  what  he  tolerates  in  Prussia?  Is  he  not 
prompted  by  hatred  of  the  Republic?  To  this  we  answer:  One 
must  be  extremely  ignorant,  or  be  guilty  of  bad  faith,  if  he  finds 
any  resemblance  between  the  Associations  of  Worship  in  Ger- 
many and  those  of  France. 

1.  The  German  Association  is  composed  of  many  persons, 
over  whom  in  the  first  place  and  by  right,  the  parish  priest  pre- 
sides. 

2.  The  Bishop  has  the  right  to  convoke  the  Association  when- 
ever he  judges  fit. 

3.  When  the  parishes  are  too  small  the  Bishop  can  decide 
that  there  will  be  no  parochial  Association. 

4.  When  the  Associations  neglect  or  refuse  obstinately  to  do 
their  dut}',  the  Bishop  can  dissolve  them. 

5.  The  Bishop  has  right  to  communicate  his  views  to  the 
parochial  Associations  on  the  conduct  of  their  business. 

6.  The  parochial  Associations  (and  this  is  particularly  note- 
worthy) are  so  devised  as  to  be  able  to  receive  and  expend  money 
for  benevolent  and  educational  work. 

7.  The  Bishop  can  dismiss  every  member  of  the  Association 

41 


whom  he  judges  to  have  been  faithless  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duty. 

8.  The  Bishop  exercises  the  right  of  surveilhince  and  of  ap- 
proval over  the  greatest  number  of  the  administrative  acts  of 
the  Associations.    Minor  matters  he  leaves  to  others. 

9.  The  Priests  receive  from  these  German  Associations  an 
average  salary  of  at  least  2,500  francs,  equal  to  $500. 

10.  The  Bishop's  salary  exceeds  30.000  francs,  eqiral  to  $0,000. 

11.  The  accounts  of  the  several  Associations  are  inspected 
yearly  by  the  State. 

I  now  ask  what  resemblance  is  there  between  the  Law  of  our 
French  Associations  of  Worship,  which  is  as  mute  as  death 
about  Bishops  and  priests,  which  is  a  plunderer  of  charitable, 
educational,  and  ecclesiastical  funds,  and  the  Law  of  the  Prus- 
sian Associations  of  Worship?  The  German  parish  priests  have 
in  their  Associations  the  joosition  Avhich  the  Catholic  Church  de- 
mands, and  they  are  there  \)\  right,  'lliov  convoke,  they  counsel, 
they  revoke,  they  watch  over  the  parochial  assemblies  and  they 
dismiss  unworthy  members.  I  am  almots  tempted,  although  my 
authority  does  not  count  for  much,  to  risk  this  suggestion :  I^et 
them  give  us  the  German  xVssociations,  and  we  will  arrange 
things  with  the  Pope. 

12.  Then  it  is  only  through  an  unpardonable  ignorance  or 
willful  malice  that  the  Holy  See  can  be  charged  with  criminal 
partialitj^  and  inconsistency,  because  it  has  now  rejected  the  Asso- 
ciations of  Worship  in  France,  while  it  approved  those  estab- 
lished in  Germany  in  1875.  Here  there  can  be  no  parallel  be- 
tween the  two  legislations,  as  they  are  diametricallj^  opposed  to 
each  other.  The  Prussian  Law  of  June  20  concerning  the  ad- 
ministration of  ecclesiastical  endowments  guaranteed  to  the  Cath- 
olic Church  her  full  right  over  all  her  property,  and  only  aimed 
at  supervising  its  administration,  which  was  left  nearly  entirely 
in  her  hands. 

Appendix — Note  C. 

FRANCE  AND  BRAZIL. 

In  1889  when  Don  Pedro  was  dethroned  and  a  Republic  was 
formed,  the  union  which  had  formerly  existed  between  the 
Church  and  the  monai'chy  was  dissolved.  That  the  dissolution 
was  not  the  effect  of  an  anti-religious  campaign  is  seen  from  the 
fact  that  a  Brazilian  Minister  is  still  accredited  to  the  Vatican. 
The  Church  tolerated  the  situation  and  adapted  herself  to  it. 
The  following  is  the  Decree  of  January  7,  1890,  by  which  the 
separation  was  bj-ought  about.  What  a  difference  there  is  be- 
tween it  and  the  French  ''Separation  Law!" 

Article  1.  The  Federal  Government  and  the  Confederate^  States 
shall  not  promulgate  laws,  regulations  or  administrative  orders 
which  establish  or  prescribe  a  religion,  or  which  create  differences 
between  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  or  in  the  services  sup- 
ported by  the  budget,  because  of  beliefs  or  of  philosophical 
and  religious  opinions. 

Article  2.  All  religious  confessions  have  equal  rights  to  prac- 
tice their  cult  and  to  govern  themselves  in  accoi'dance  with  their 
beliefs,  without  being  disturbed  in  private  or  public  actions 
■which  concern  the  exercise  of  this  right. 

42 


Article  3.  This  liberty  does  not  extend  only  to  persons  for 
their  individual  actions,  but  also  to  churches,  associations  and 
institutions  of  which  they  form  a  part,  giving  each  the  full 
right  to  constitute  itself  and  continue  as  a  body  following  its 
confession  and  its  discipline,  without  interference  from  the  public 
authority. 

Article  4.  Patronage,  Avith  all  its  accessories,  powers  and 
privileges  is  suppressed. 

Article  5.  All  churches  and  religious  confessions  have  legal 
powers  to  acquire  and  administer  property  subject  to  the  law 
of  mortmain,  allowing  each  its  actual  possessions  as  well  as  the 
buildings  connected  with  the  cult. 

Article  6.  The  Federal  Government  continues  to  support  the 
present  titularies  of  the  Catholic  confession,  and  it  will  sub- 
vention seminary  chairs  for  a  year,  giving  each  State  every 
freedom  to  support  the  future  ministers  of  this  or  of  any  other 
denomination  subject  to  the  disposition  of  the  preceding  Articles. 

Article  7.  Every  preceding  enactment  contrary  to  this  law 
is  repealed. 

Appendix — Note  D. 
THE  STOLEN  DOCUMENTS. 

Apparently  the  French  Government  is  preparing  to  publish 
a  part  of  the  documents  found  in  the  Pontifical  archives  in  Paris. 
.  The  fact  is  not  very  surprising,  for  the  Government  is  now  dead 
to  all  sense  of  public  honor.  But  it  suggests  some  significant 
reflections.  The  documents  were  seized  originally  on  the  specific 
pretext  that  Mgr.  Montagnini,  in  whose  keej^ing  they  w^ere,  was 
accused  of  inciting  three  j^arish  priests  of  Paris  to  violate  the 
Separation  Law.  Nothing  has  since  been  heard  of  that  charge 
from  the  French  Government — in  fact,  everybody  knows  now 
that  it  was  a  trumped-up  accusation,  on  all  fours  with  the  fan- 
tastic 'plot  against  the  Republic'  Avhich  are  invented,  exploited, 
and  forgotten  all  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  whenever  a  French 
ministry  wishes  to  create  a  pretext  to  win  a  vote.  Under  the 
circumstances  even  those  papers  which  regard  Mgr.  Montagnini 
personally  should  have  been  returned  to  the  owner  before  this. 
But  besides  these  papers  there  is  a  vast  collection  -^f  documents 
with  which  Mgr.  Montagnini  had  no  more  relation  than  the 
English  Ambassador  in  Paris.  They  affect  prominent  person- 
ages both  living  and  dead,  and  foreigners  as  well  as  Frenchmen, 
just  as  there  are  probably  at  this  moment  in  the  English  Em- 
bassy at  Paris  (unless  the  present  Ambassador  has  been  wise 
enough  to  remove  them  to  some  safe  place  in  view  of  recent 
events)  many  diplomatic  documents  which  intimately  concern 
the  political  adversaries  of  MM.  Briand  and  Clemenceau.  Sup- 
pose the  British  Ambassador  were  for  any  reason  obliged  to 
leave  Paris  tomorrow,  and  that  the  French  Government  took 
occasion  from  that  fact  to  arrest  his  secretary  on  a  bogus  charge, 
and  to  seize  all  the  papers — not  of  the  secretary,  but  of  the 
Embassy,  what  would  happen  ?  It  would  mean  one  thing  at  any 
rate;  that  the  editors  of  all  the  newspapers  in  the  country  would 
lash  with  scorpions  the  authors  of  this  outrage  on  international 
honor. 

43 


Meanwhile  it  is  well  to  emphasize  this  fact:  There  is  not  a 
document  or  a  scrap  of  paper  in  all  the  archives  thus  violently 
seized  which  compromises  the  Holy  See  in  any  way.  The  Govern- 
ment organs  made  a  shifty  confession  of  this  last  week  when  they 
insinuated  that  the  most  important  documents  had  been  removed 
before  the  raiders  had  been  able  to  laj'^  liands  on  them.  That 
is  absolutely  false.  Had  the  Holj^  See  had  the  slightest  inkling 
of  a  danger  to  the  documents  it  might  very  easily  have  removed 
or  destroyed  the  key  to  the  most  important  of  them.  The  fact 
that  it  did  not  do  even  this  much  shows  that  it  never  suspected 
that  M.  Briand  would  have  turned  l>urglar  and  used  a  jimmy. 
It  is  important  also  to  remember  that  the  seizure  of  the  docu- 
ments was  carried  out  in  a  most  irregular  manner — the  piracy 
was  so  flagrant  that  the  authors  of  it  did  not  think  it  worth 
while  to  make  the  usual  inventory  on  the  spot,  of  the  documents 
sequestrated.  Thus  there  are  four  particularly  significant  feat- 
ures in  this  deplorable  incident.  The  custodian  of  these  docu- 
ments was  arrested  on  a  false  charge;  no  inventory  was  taken 
of  his  papers;  a  veiled  confession  w^as  made  that  the  documents 
seized  failed  to  inculpate  the  Holy  See;  yet  the  Government 
intends  to  publish  some  of  them.  One  wonders  if  M.  Briand 
really  imagines  that  the  public  will  accept  as  authentic  any 
alleged  document  he  may  like  to  print. — The  Roman  Correspond- 
ent London  Tablet^  January  12,  1907. 

Appendix — Note  E. 

THE  PERSECUTION  IN  FRANCE. 

THE  FACTS. 

(By  William  Poland,  S.  J.,  of  St.  Louis,  Mo.) 

As  there  is  much  misinformation  regarding  the  Persecution 
of  the  Church  in  France,  the  following  facts  will  be  of  interest 
to  those  who  care  for  tnith  and  justice. 

1.  This  misinformation  has  come  from  the  newspapers.  The 
newspapers  do  not  print  the  truth  because  the  truth  is  not  sent  to 
them.  For  thirty-five  years  the  facts  have  been  suppressed  or 
falsified.  This  has  been  done  in  the  German  Persecution,  in  the 
Italian  Persecution  and  in  the  French  Persecution.  During 
this  present  ■week  the  news  agency  has  represented  the  war  of 
France  against  the  Church  as  the  war  of  the. Pope  against  France. 

2.  The  fact  is  that  there  is  a  real  and  hitter  Persecution  of 
the  Church  in  France;  that  this  Persecution  has  been  going  on 
since  1879;  and  that  it  is  carried  on  by  anti-Christian  organ- 
izations. 

3.  To  understand  the  present  Persecution  aright  we  must  look 
back  one  hundred  and  fifteen  years  to  the  time  of  the  Reion  of 
Terror,  in  1791,  1792,  and  1793.  After  the  dethronement  of  the 
good  King  Louis  XVI.,  Franco  was  ruled  by  revolutionary 
bodies:  first,  "Constituent  Assembly,"  then  "Legislative  As- 
sembly," and  next,  "National  Convention."  After  the  King 
had  been  beheaded  and  thousands  of  persons  had  been  put  to 
death,  it  was  found  that  the  killing  went  on  too  slowly.    To  make 

44 


it  go  faster  forty- four  thousand  guillotines,  that  is  slaughter 
hloel's,  were  set  up  through  the  land  and  then  the  chopping  off 
of  heads  went  on  very  briskly.  Altogetlicr  two  million  persons 
were  slaughtered.  A  government  decree  was  passed  against 
Christianity.  And  then  all  property  of  every  kind  connected 
with  the  Church, — the  convents,  the  hospitals,  the  asylums,  the 
schools,  the  churches,  the  bequests  and  foundations  for  the  poor 
and  sick  that  had  gathered  during  more  than  a  thousand  years, — 
all  was  seised ;  and  then  religion  Avas  replaced  by  putting  a  de- 
praved woman,  on  the  altar  of  the  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  of 
Paris. 

4.  Before  that  century  closed,  Napoleon  Bonaparte  had  seized 
the  reins  of  government  in  France.  Seeing  that  he  could  not 
rule  a  people  without  religion,  he  addressed  himself  to  the  Pope 
to  have  religion  re-established.  The  Pope  was  willing  to  enter 
into  an  agreement.  In  1801  there  was  signed  the  CONCORDAT 
or  ARTICLES  OF  AGREEMENT.  By  the  Concordat  the 
Pope  allowed  such  of  the  stolen  property  of  the  Church  as  had 
been  sold  by  the  government  during  the  ten  years,  to  remain 
undisturbed  in  the  hands  of  the  holders.  He  tiius  relinquished 
the  ownership  of  such  churches,  hospitals,  monasteries,  schools, 
etc.,  as  had  heen  sold.  But  he  relinquished  no  right  to  any  other 
of  the  stolen  property  which  had  not  been  sold.  With  few  ex- 
ceptions, the  churches  had  not  been  sold.  These  churches  were 
to  be  put  at  the  disposition  of  the  bishops.  By  way  of  making 
a  little  restitution,  a  slight  support  was  to  be  given  to  the  pastors, 
- — not  even  a  small  fraction  of  the  interest  due  upon  the  property 
stolen  and  sold  b}^  the  government. 

5.  In  a  short  time,  then,  the  churches  again  had  pastors.  Very 
soon  new  colleges,  seminaries,  academies,  lyceums,  hospitals,  or- 
phanages, homes  for  the  poor  and  the  aged,  etc.,  were  once  more 
provided  by  the  zeal  and  charity  of  the  people;  so  that  in  the 
course  of  the  hundred  years,  up  to  the  present  time,  more  than 
one  hundred  million  dollars  have  been  contributed  and  put  in 
tnist  with  private  citizens,  with  the  bishops  and  the  pastors,  for 
purposes  of  education,  of  charity,  and  of  religious  services. 

6.  Now,  in  this  our  Twentieth  Century,  one  hundred  j'ears 
from  the  signing  of  the  CONCORDAT,  the  reins  of  government 
have  again  fallen  into  the  hands  of  men  who  represent  the  Reign 
or  Terror. 

7.  These  men  set  about  their  Avork  as  early  as  1879,  and  in  the 
next  year,  1880,  hundreds  of  Catholic  churches,  colleges  and 
schools  were  closed  by  force,  and  the  religious  teachers  were 
driven  out  of  their  homes. 

8.  Within  the  last  three  years,  especially,  at  least  sixteen 
thousand  Catholic  schools,  academies  and  colleges  have  been 
closed.  The  religious  conducting  these  establishments  were  told 
that  they  could  ask  for  an  authorization,  and  when  they  asked 
for  an  authorization,  their  requests  were  thrown  in  the  waste 
basket.  Between  one  and  two  hundred  thousand  religious  con- 
victed of  no  crime,  and  without  trial,  were  then  put  upon  the 
street.  Priests  and  brothers,  aged  and  feeble  nuns,  were  all 
turned  out  into  the  hightcay  as  so  many  cattle,  with  no  provision 
made  for  a  crust  of  hrcad,  a  shelter  from  the  storm  or  a  nighfs 
lodging. 

45 


9.  Of  course,  the  terrible  scenes  of  these  three  years  were  7iot 
allowed  to  be  sent  in  the  telegraphic  dispatches. 

10.  The  Catholic  schools  have  been  replaced  everj^where  by 
atheistic  schools  of  every  grade,  for  the  purj^ose  of  bringing  up 
the  children  and  the  young  men  and  women  to  a  hatred  for 
Chnst  and  without  Christian  morality. 

11.  Finally,  as  the  last  step,  just  now,  all  the  bishops  and 
parish  priests  are  being  driven  from  their  homes;  and  these 
homes  together  with  the  thirty  thousand  churches  and  all  proper- 
ties are  being  seized  by  the  government. 

12.  This  is  being  done  under  a  law  passed  last  year,  the  no- 
torious law  of  "Associations  for  Worship"  {Associations  cultu- 
elles.)  By  this  law  the  bishops  and  priests  are  ordered  to  give 
up  all  control  and  management  of  everything  connected  with  the 
church  property  and  church  services.  Everything  must  be  put 
into  the  hands  of  Committees  {Associations)  of  laymen,  who  will 
manage  everything — churches,  property,  residences,  bequests,  the 
Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  Confession,  Holy  C ommunion,  Bapt- 
ism, the  Sacraments  for  the  dying,  etc. — all  according  to  the 
dictates  of  the  atheistic  government. 

13.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  no  man  with  half  a  conscience  could 
thus  3'ield  up  his  trust  and  his  obligation  before  God  and  man. 
And  so  the  Pope  and  the  Bishops  and  the  Pastors  with  one  voice 
have  said  NON  POSSUMUS,  we  cannot.  And  this  is  the  pretext 
under  which  the  entire  Episcopate  and  the  whole  body  of  the 
secular  clerg}^,  the  pastors  of  the  churches,  are  being  turned  into 
the  streets,  as  the  hundred  or  two  hundred  thousand  religious 
teachers  and  servants  of  the  poor  have  been  turned  into  the  street 
before  them. 

14.  During  the  7>as^  twelve  months,  the  government  of  TER- 
ROR, in  order  to  be  sure  of  the  plunder,  has  sent  its  agents  to 
each  of  the  thirty  thousand  parishes,  and  these  agents  have  made 
a  complete  list  of  every  so-ap  of  property  connected  with  each 
church.  This  list  includes  everything,  even  to  the  vestments 
and  chalices  used  for  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  and  the 
vessels  in  which  the  Sacred  Body  of  Christ  is  preserved  in  the 
Tabernacle  on  the  Altar.  All  this  is  now  being  seized  as  each 
Bishop  and  Pastor  is  being  put  upon  the  street. 

15.  And,  finally,  this  law  of  ''Associations"  is  so  worded  that 
if  any  Bishop  or  Pastor  should — which  God  forbid — so  forget  his 
conscience  as  to  consent  to  the  sacrilege,  and  betray  his  trust, — 
the  law  is  so  worded  that  no  Committee  could  possibly  avoid  one 
or  another  of  a  multitude  of  acts  on  account  of  any  one  of  which 
confiscation  would  imniediately  follow. 

16.  But  the  whole  case  is  made  plain  by  the  words  of  M. 
Briand,  wlio  is  a  member  of  the  French  Cabinet,  aud  is  the  framer 
of  the  law.  M.  Briand,  as  the  Minister  of  Education,  in  addressing 
the  school  teachers  of  the  new  atheistic  schools,  said : 

"The  time  has  come  to  root  up  from  the  minds  of  French  chil- 
dren the  ancient  faith  which  has  served  its  purpose,  and  replace  it 
with  the  light  of  free  thought.  It  is  time  to  get  rid  of  the  Chris- 
tian idea.  We  have  hunted  Jesus  Christ  out  of  the  army,  the 
navy,  the  schools,  the  hospitals,  the  insane  asylums,  the  orphan 

46 


asylums  and  the  law  courts;  and  now  we  must  hunt  him  out  of 
the  state  altogether." 

There  is  no  need  of  further  testimony. 

Appendix — Note  F. 

WHAT  PEINCIPLE  IS  AT  STAKE. 

The  Saturday  Review  of  London  in  a  January  issue,  referring 
to  the  brave  attitude  of  the  French  Bishops  toward  their  relent- 
less persecutors,  eloquently  said  that  they  are  "fighting  the  battle 
of  Christendom,"  a  very  suggestive  expression,  which  has  been 
cleverly  developed  by  another  English  journal,  The  Birmingham 
Daily  Post,  of  January  12,  1907.  "In  this  warfare,"  says  that 
editor,  "at  the  root  of  many  other  political  issues,  lies  the  funda- 
mental question  whether  modern  States  shall  continue  to  be  or- 
ganized on  the  basic  ideas  of  Christianity,  that  is,  on  a  system 
of  morals,  and  civic  legislation  deriving  its  sanction  from  a  super- 
natural source,  or  whether  the  State  shall  be  completely  divorced 
from  religion,  and  moulded  on  the  pattern  of  the  pagan  repub- 
licanism of  1793  or  of  imperial  Caesarism.  In  other  words,  the 
great  principle  at  issue  is  which  conception  of  the  State  is  to 
prevail  in  the  future;  that  which  declares  that  civil  society  is 
a  divinely  ordered  organism,  whose  preservation,  development 
and  perfection  depend  upon  conformity  with  a  system  of  thought 
and  morals,  that  links  man  to  the  Supreme  Being,  or  that  which 
asserts  that  such  a  system,  though  justified  by  centuries  of  success- 
ful results  among  Christian  nations,  is  now  to  be  held  as  a  sheer 
delusion,  of  which  modern  society  should  rid  itself,  a  task  which 
Governments  should  assist  in  accomplishing  by  assaults  on  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  Church?  This  is  the  issue  as  it  pres- 
ents itself  to  the  Pope  and  the  Catholics  of  France.  On  such  an 
issue  the  Papacy,  and  indeed  religious  men  of  any  and  every  com- 
munion can  form  but  one  conclusion  and  it  is  this.  Any  concep- 
tion of  the  St^.te  destructive  of  religion,  and  any  manifestation 
of  political  forces  with  this  end  in  view  (whether  that  end  be 
avowed  or  concealed)  must  be  met  with  uncompromising  resist- 
ance, if  we  wish  to  save  society  from  utter  ruin." 

Appendix — Note  G. 

A  WORD  TO  THE  EDITORS  OF  THE 

SECULAR  JOURNALS. 

Though  there  are  signs  that  the  long  campaign  of  calumny 
in  the  English  and  American  press  against  the  Supreme  Pontitf 
and  the  Catholic  Church  in  France  is  coming  to  an  end,  yet  some 
few  rem.arks  on  this  subject  will  not  be  considered  out  of  place 
and  may  produce  some  good  results.  What  has  been  the  attitude 
of  the  secular  press  regarding  the  present  conflict  in  France? 
What  have  been  the  views  expressed  by  its  editors,  the  men,  who 
pose  as  leaders  of  public  opinion,  the  stalwart  defenders  of  sound 
ethical  principles,  and  the  staunch  advocates  of  the  people's 
rights?  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  state  that  with  few  laudable  ex- 
ceptions, the  English  and  the  American  journals,  have,  from  the 
very  beginning  of  the  crisis,  pursued   a  course,  which  is  both 

47 


heartless  and  unjudicious,  and  which  throws  no  little  discredit 
on  the  noble  function  of  the  jMihlic  press.  Their  power  for  good, 
either  through  prejudice  or  unpardonable  ignorance,  has  been 
turned  into  an  instrument  of  evil.  The  line  of  thoughts,  which 
with  more  or  less  bitterness  they  have  been  striving  to  impress 
on  their  readers,  is  reduced  to  this:  "We  have  studied,"  they 
editoriallj'  say,  "the  whole  question  and  this  is  our  verdict.  Rome 
has  been  unwise,  reactionary,  impolitic,  unjust  in  its  dealings 
with  France.  The  French  Government,  on  the  contrary,  has 
merely  asserted  the  rights  of  every  civil  State  against  the  en- 
croachments of  the  Church;  it  has  been  invariably  on  the  side 
of  liberty;  it  has  been  moderate,  just,  nay,  even  generous, 
throughout  the  succeeding  phases  of  this  controversy.  And  as  to 
the  churches,  cathedrals,  and  other  property,  there  Avas  no  con- 
fiscation, for,  from  the  date  of  the  Concordat  in  1801,  up  to  the 
present  time,  they  belonged  to  the  State  who  put  them  at  the 
disposal  of  the  clergy;  hence  by  taking  possession  of  them  the 
State  only  rivendicates  wdiat  was  its  ow^n  from  the  beginning." 
Now,  this  is,  in  general  terms,  the  way  the}-  handled  that  most 
serious  and  delicate  question.  Have  they  done  justice  to  it? 
Have  the}'  presented  to  their  readers  the  true  state  of  affairs? 
WTioever  has  taken  the  trouble  to  read  this  pamphlet  and  the 
Documents  and  Notes  illustrating  the  Lecture  cannot  fail  to 
conclude  that  their  view  is  utterly  misleading.  The  churches, 
cathedrals,  and  other  eccleciastical  appurtenances  in  France  are 
no  more  the  proi:)erty  of  the  Republic  than  they  are  of  the  Czar 
of  Russia,  or  of  the  Sultan  of  Turke3^  They  are  Church  proper- 
ty, held  in  trust  by  the  clergy  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  And 
as  to  the  conduct  of  the  Poj)e  in  the  present  conflict,  here  is  what 
Combes,  a  late  Prime  Minister,  the  predecessor  of  Clemenceau, 
and  himself  a  bitter  enemy  of  the  Church,  published  in  the  Neue 
Freie  Presse  of  Vienna,  on  January  5,  1907:  "Pius  X.  is  not  act- 
ing as  an  obstinate  man  by  ordering  the  French  Bishops  not  to 
accept  the  Separation  Law.  He  is  acting  as  Pope  conscious  of 
his  office,  and  conscious  too  of  the  fundamental  doctrine  he  is 
conimissioiied  to  uphold.  His  irrceonciiahlcncss  is  not  that  of  a 
man,  but  of  a  doctrine,  which  he  is  not  at  libcrt}'  to  mutilate  or 
suppress.  Justly  and  rightly  has  he  held  it  to  be  a  duty  and  a 
point  of  honor  to  proclaim  this  doctrine  from  the  height  of  the 
papal  chair  under  pain  of  incurring  the  guilt  of  neglect  of  duty 
in  the  matters  of  Catholic  teachings.''  Returning  now^  to  the 
editors,  let  them,  I  say,  look  at  the  actual  facts  scpiarely  in  the 
•  face,  and  what  will  they  behold?  But  yesterday  the  Chiirch  of 
France  appeared  in  all  her  grandeur  before  the  world.  She  was 
bearing  the  light  of  the  Gosj)el  and  Christian  civilization  through 
tens  of  thousands  of  lier  devoted  sons  and  daughters  to  the  re- 
motest heathen  lands.  She  was  fighting  against  the  inroads  of 
sin  and  vice,  and  ministering  to  every  human  need  and  infiiinity. 
Look  at  her  now.  Her  activity  has  been  well  nigh  completely 
paralyzed.  She  has  been  stri|)ped  of  all  her  means  of  subsistence. 
All  her  bishops  and  priests  have  been  forcibly  ejecteil  from  their 
homes;  her  seininaries,  devoted  to  the  education  of  candidates 
for  the  pi-iesthood,  have  been  seized,  and  all  hci-  churches,  hospi- 

48 


tals  for  the  sick,  asylums  for  the  poor,  and  her  establishments 
for  the  education  of  youths,  have  been  declared  property  of  the 
State.  The  Government  abolished  all  religious  organizations, 
disbanded  them,  and  confiscated  their  goods;  and  after  perpe- 
trating all  these  iniquities  in  the  light  of  day,  that  same  Govern- 
ment had  the  effrontery  to  proclaim  in  Parliament,  and  announce 
in  its  official  organs,  that  it  had  given  liberty  to  the  Church. 
These  illfated  rulers  claim  to  have  secured  religious  peace;  but 
the  world  knows  that  the  only  results  accomplished  have  been 
desolation,  disunion,  anarchy  and  ruin  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  that  unhappy  land.  They  have  made  a  desert, 
and  call  it  peace.  Here  we  may  ask  our  learned  editors :  Can  you 
deny  the  perpetration  of  these  and  other  iniquities  in  the  name 
of  the  law  ?  I  have  too  much  respect  for  your  honesty  to  insinu- 
ate the  belief  that  you  are  the  hired  minions  of  the  French  Prime 
Minister  Clemenceau,  as  the  Reptile  Press  of  Germany  of  1870 — 
1880  was  of  the  iron  chancellor  Bismarck.  What  interest  had 
you  then  in  taking  sides  against  the  w-eak,  the  innocent  and  the 
oppressed  ?  The  times  of  bigotry  and  narrowmindedness,  gentle- 
men, are  passed,  never,  we  hope,  to  return.  After  all,  the  highest 
aim  of  the  press  as  you  yourselves  hold  and  proclaim,  is  to  tell 
the  truth,  and  give  fair  play  to  all  irrespective  of  their  religious 
creeds  or  political  views.  Keep  to  your  promise,  and  we  ask  for 
nothing  more.  See  that  your  correspondents  supply  you  with 
genuine  facts  and  not  with  inventions,  and  have  the  courage  to 
put  the  facts  before  us  in  their  true  light.  Then  you  will  not 
have  the  mortification  of  being  obliged  to  retract  what  you  hast- 
ily wrote  against  the  Catholic  Church  and  her  institutions.  For 
in  these  days  of  telegraphic  communication  open  to  all,  and  other 
quick  and  reliable  means  of  information,  truth  will  soon  make  its 
way  to  men's  minds,  and  historical  events  appear  in  their  true 
light.  Abraham  Lincoln  uttered  a  great  truth  when  he  said: 
"You  can  fool  all  people  some  time,  and  some  people  all  the  time, 
but  you  cannot  fool  all  the  people  all  the  time." 

Appendix — Note  H. 

THE  HEROISM  OF  THE  FRENCH  CLERGY  AND 
A  STRH<:iNG  CONTRAST. 

The  unanimity  of  the  Episcopate,  the  embarrassment  of  the 
French  Government,  the  sympathy  of  all  civilized  nations  and 
the  useless  and  abortive  attempt  to  create  a  schism,  by  setting  the 
laity  against  the  clergy,  form  already  around  the  throne  of  the 
Vatican  the  first  conquests  of  right  over  might,  ^'^liat  a  splendid 
sight  is  now  presented  by  the  Bishops  and  Priests  compelled  by 
the  sword  of  their  persecutors  to  abandon  their  homes,  their 
seminaries,  yet  remaining  with  their  flocks,  amidst  which  they 
continue  to  labor,  and  with  which  they  divide  the  morsel  of 
bread,  that  Christian  charity  never  fails  to  provide  for  them ! 
The  Church  of  France  had  no  choice  but  to  stand  before  her  per- 
secutors poor,  but  free,  and  the  sacrifice  was  resqlutely  faced  for 
conscience  sake;  privations  and  poverty  are  accepted  and  cheer- 

49 


fully  endured  to  safeguard  the  essential  liberties,  independence 
and  autonomy  of  God's  Holy  Church.  Hence  the  whole  civilized 
world  cannot  but  admire  the  faithfulness  to  principle,  the  devo- 
tion to  duty,  the  obedience  to  conscience,  and  submission  to  eccle- 
ciastical  authority,  which  have  led  the  P'rench  Bishops  and 
Priests  to  face  ills,  which,  by  compliance  with  an  unjust  law,  they 
could  have  avoided,  and  to  encounter  a  poverty,  which  for  many 
of  ii:ein  means  i'Jniost  utter  destitution.  This  spectacle  shows 
that  loyalty  and  heroism  have  not  disappeared  from  among  men, 
and  that  no  earthly  consideration  should  make  men  desert  the 
path  of  duty  when  religious  principles  are  at  stake.  This  fact 
naturally  reminds  the  reader  of  a  striking  contrast.  As  we  read 
in  the  Literary  Digest  for  January  19,  1007,  also  the  Protestant 
churches  were  affected  by  the  French  Separation  Law  of  Decem- 
ber, 1905,  and  people  are  naturally  anxious  to  know  what  has  been 
their  attitude  in  the  present  crisis.  It  can  be  stated  in  a  few 
words.  Six  hundred  and  eighty-six  Protestant  ministers,  em- 
bracing several  denominations,  without  a  solitary  exception,  have 
submitte(;l  to  the  law,  and  formed  the  so-called  associations  of 
worship  subject  to  a  Board  of  Trustees,  under  State  control.  By 
so  doing  they  were  allowed  to  retain  their  churches,  presbyteries 
and  property  and  to  pursue  their  course  unmolested.  At  the  bid- 
ding of  the  political  highwaymen  Briand,  Clemen ceau  and  Co., 
demanding  from  them  either  submission  or  the  purse,  they  have 
at  once  thrown  up  their  hands;  they  forfeited  their  honor,  their 
liberty  and  independence,  it  is  true,  but  they  saved  their  purse. 
This  fact  needs  no  comment  at  our  hands.  We  supply  the  readers 
with  the  premises,  it  is  for  them  to  draw  the  conclusion. 

Appendix — Note  I. 

After  witnessing,  during  the  last  years,  so  many  instances  of 
bad  faith  and  chicanery  on  the  part  of  the  French  Government  in 
its  dealings  with  Catholics,  we  feel  fully  justified  in  endorsing 
the  sharp  rebuke  with  which  Mr.  l*aul  Bakewell  of  the  IMissouri 
bar  concludes  his  recent  address  on  the  "Separation  Law:" 

"Need  I  ask.  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  whether  such  a  sham  re- 
public, false  to  all  republican  ideas,  can  make  anj'  claim  to  re- 
spect or  demand  that  any  official  statement  of  hers  be  believed? 
On  the  other  side,  we  see  the  Church  wronged,  oppressed,  in- 
sulted, having  yielded  all  for  peace  sake  that  she  could  conscienti- 
ously yield,  now  standing  calm  and  dignified,  fearless  in  the  pres- 
ence of  her  relentless  foes.  Never  perhaps  in  modern  times  has 
her  Catholicity  shone  forth  so  brightly  as  now,  when  she  stands 
the  representative  of  God  and  religion,  of  virtue,  honesty,  truth 
and  justice  against  legalised  robbery,  iniquity  and  blaspheming 
anarchy.  No  need  to  ask  American  Catholics  which  side  they  will 
take.  I  ask  whether  any  decent  man,  be  his  religion  what  it 
may,  can  hesitate  for  a  moment." 

As  we  were  going  to  press,  the  mail  brought  to  us  the  Feb- 
ruary Messenger,  published  by  the  Jesuit  Fathers  in  New  York, 
from  whose  pages  we  glean  the  following  passages,  Avhich,  we 
are  sure,  will -interest  our  readers:  "Day  by  day  the  Church 
gains  in  the  struggle.    So  far  her  losses,  serious  as  they  are,  be- 

50 


come  insignificant  when  compared  with  her  gains.  The  loss  is 
matez'ial  only,  the  seminaries,  charitable  institutions,  rectories, 
pious  funds,  etc.  .  .  .  The  gain  is  the  moral  conquest  of  public 
opinion,  the  recovery  of  liberty  for  Bishops  to  assemble  in  coun- 
cil, and  for  the  priests  to  own  their  own  soids,  and  to  exercise 
their  ministry  rescued  from  servitude  to  anticliristian  authorities; 
and  the  still  greater  gain  of  unity  of  the  liierarchy  with  the  Pope, 
and  the  unity  of  the  people  with  their  Bishops  and  priests.  What 
the  laAV  has  most  plainly  achieved  is  to  consolidate  the  unity  of 
the  Church  in  France  in  a  way  that  for  more  than  a  century  was 
practically  impossible.  The  outside  world  does  not  grasp  the 
fact  that  the  Pope's  protest  against  the  wholesale  confiscation  of 
Church  property  is  an  appeal  to -every  man  who  owns  a  house, 
or  has  a  coat  of  his  own  to  his  back,  to  comprehend  the  conse- 
quences of  this  spoliation,  namely,  that  it  implies  social  and  na- 
tional ruin;  that  it  is  the  abrogation  of  all  law  and  justice;  that 
it  is  anarchy,  and  that  the  framer  of  the  Separation  Law,  so 
called,  has  arrogantly  spoken  of  it  as  "legalized  anarchy."  The 
Government's  cowardice  in  selectino-  as  its  prey  an  unresisting 
victim,  the  rapaciousness  with  which  it  clutches  at  ever3'thing  and 
the  blind  indiscriminatness  with  which  it  robs  the  very  man  of 
all  the  world  who  loves  the  poor  and  oppressed,  and  who  pours 
out  all  he  has  for  their  benefit,  ought  to  warn  rulers  and  people 
alike  of  what  this  movement,  which  has  been  in  active  prepara- 
tion for  twenty-five  years,  portends.  The  action  of  the  Pope  in 
rejecting  the  offers  of  the  French  Government  has  revealed  to 
the  world  the  real  mind  of  the  Church  in  a  way  that  cannot  easily 
be  forgotten.  It  is  conscience  scorning  sin.  It  is  magnificent ;  it 
is  sublime ;  and  the  world,  which  finds  it  hard  to  understand  such 
a  condition  of  mind,  is  staggered.  Over  and  above  the  clamor 
raised  by  its  own  teachers  it  has  heard  what  amounts  almost  to  a 
dogmatic  declaration  from  the  Vicegerent  of  Christ  himself  that 
there  is  something  beyond  the  realms  of  matter ;  that  there  is  a 
spiritual  world ;  that  there  is  a  God ;  that  there  is  a  heaven ;  that 
there  is  a  hell,  and  it  has  nothing  to  reply  except  that  the  Pontiff 
is  a  peasant,  and  a  ""mystic"  another  word  in  their  minds  for  a 
fool.  Never  in  modern  times  was  a  sublime  lesson  so  sublimely 
taught  to  a  hard-hearted  and  incredulous  generation.  Catholics, 
who  have  been  always  reminded  that  it  is  necessary  to  make  any 
sacrifice  rather  than  commit  sin,  now  understand  their  faith  bet- 
ter. Perhaps  the  rest  of  the  world  will  one  day  grasp  Avhat  has 
occurred. 

Appendix — Note  J. 

LEGAL  OPINION  ON  THE  FRENCH  SPOLIATION. 

An  extract  from  the  lecture  of  Hon.  Morgan  J.  O'Brien,  former 
Presiding  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York : 

The  deeds  of  1905  I  shall  summarize  briefly. 

The  French  government  declares  that  the  Concordat  sliall  no 
longer  exist.  It  undertakes  to  break  a  treaty  without  consulta- 
tion with  the  other  party  to  it.  It  undertakes  to  annul  a 
contract. 

That  cannot  be  done  without  a  reason.     No  lack  of  considera- 

51 


tion  is  alleged.  No  denial  is  made  that  the  bargain  was  equitable 
to  the  French  government.  Xo  accusation  is  made  that  any 
clause  oi"  that  contract  has  not  been  rigidly  observed  by  the 
Church. 

But  this  is  only  the  beginning.  The  government  does  not  say: 
"I  cancel  this  mortgage  and  return  the  principal  because  I  re- 
fuse to  pay  interest  longer."  It  retains  the  principal  and  asserts 
that  the  title  to  all  the  ante-revolutionary  Church  property 
vested  absolutely  in  the  state  by  the  provisions  of  the  Concordat, 
■without  regard  to  the  liability  which  was  the  condition  of  that 
investiture. 

Since  1801,  40,000  churches  have  been  built,  of  which  less  than 
300  were  erected  as  the  result  of  State  aid.  Endowments  and  leg- 
acies from  foreign  as  well  as  French  sources  have  caused  an  ac- 
cumulation of  property  entirely  distinct  from  that  confiscated 
dui'ing  the  revolution.  This  ]u-operty  now  amounts  to  more  than 
$100,000,000. 

The  French  government  says: 

"This,  too,  is  mine." 

"The  reason?" 

"Because  I  say  it  is  mine.'' 

To  say  to  the  Pope  that  the  Catholics  of  France  may  continue 
to  occupy  and  use  their  own  property  if  they  submit  to  the  com- 
mands of  the  separation  law  is  not  the  offer  of  a  fair  alternative. 
It  is  confiscating  property  by  a  subterfuge. 

Under  these  conditions  consent  would  eventually  and  logically 
sanction  the  regulation  of  worship  by  the  police,  and  the  control 
of  churches  and  charities  by  atheists  and  socialists  not  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Catholic  masses. 

I  ask  the  American.  Protestant,  Hebrew  and  agnostic  alike, 
whether  this  is  religious  freedom? 

Does  separation  of  Church  and  State  mean  that  a  government 
can  seize  and  control  all  churches  and  regulate  public  worship? 

Is  this  a  recognition  of  the  principle  of  either  civil  or  religious 
liberty? 

Casting  aside  bias  and  bitterness;  removing  from  our  minds 
all  thought  of  spiritual  things:  basing  a  simple  ethical  proposi- 
tion upon  the  l)elief  in  right  and  Avrong  common  to  all  classes  of 
American  citizens.  I  ask  if  this  is  not  a  fair  condensation  of  the 
question  at  issue  in  France  today: 

I  take  possession  of  your  property  during  a  period  of  public 
disorder  and  sell  it.  Later  on  I  sign  a  contract  agreeing  to  pay 
you  a  fixed  annual  sum,  provided  that  you  do  not  contest  my  title 
to  your  propert3^  After  some  years  I  say  to  you:  "I  cancel  that 
contract.  You  have  kept  your  agreement,  but  I  am  tired  of  pay- 
ing. I  shall  retain  the  i)i"operty  I  took  originally  and  confiscate 
all  you  have  since  acquired,  and  in  addition  I  shall  take  every 
penny  that  you  have  earjied :  every  legacy  willed  to  you;  every 
gift  that  .you  luive  received  since  we  entered  into  oiu*  original 
agreement. 

Stripped  ol"  llie  tine  plii-;ises  of  Clemenceau  and  his  ;issociates; 
stripped  of  diplomatic  and  theological  compl(\\ities;  stripped  to 
the  bai'e,  basic  (|uestion  of  honesty,  I  have  (Mideavored  to  formu- 
late briefly  tln^  fpieslion  which  is  agitating  France  today. — New 
York  .Mail  and  Mxpress,  December  27.  lf)06. 

52 


Appendix — Noi'e  K. 
NEW  YORICS  GREAT  PROTECT. 

"TFe  register  Before  the  ^Vodd  Our  Solemn  Protest  Against  an 
Act  of  Injustice  Perpetrated  in  the  Name  of  the  Governnient  of 
France^  an  Act  that  has  for  Its  Object  the  Avowed  Destruction 
of  Christianity^  by  Attempting  to  Crash  Out  the  Life  of  the 
Catholic  Churchy  the  Form  of  Christianity  Professed  by  the  Vast 
Majority  of  Its  People — Tlw  Noblest  Spectacle  Before  tlie  Eyes 
of  the  W arid  is  the  Entire  Body  of  the  French  Clergy  Standing 
Side  by  Side^  Their  Churches  Plundered,  Their  Seminaries  and 
floiiies  Closed,  Tal-ing  up  the  Work  of  Spreading  the  (rospel 
Without  Serij)  or  Stuff,  as  Poor  as  the  Apostles  After  Pentecost.''^ 

ARC IIBI SHOP  FARLEY. 

P'roni  the  Arduliocese  of  New  York,  the  hirgest  Catholic,  diocese 
in  the  Avorkl,  was  sent  forth  Sunday  nii^lit,  January  '27th,  a  cry 
of  ])i'()te.st  to  the  French  Republic  a<>'ainst  the  oppression  of  the 
Catholics  of  France.  More  than  twenty-five  thousand  persons 
assembled  in  and  around  the  Hippodrome.  A  conservative 
estimate  of  the  number  present  was  seven  thousand  persons,  and 
while  the  meetin<>:  was  in  pr()<>ress  fully  ei<>ht(HMi  thousand  storm- 
ed the  police  lines  that  had  been  formed  in  Forty-third  and 
Forty-fourth  streets  and  Sixth  avenue.  The  auditorium  of  the 
Hi])podrome  was  crowded  fully  an  hour  before,  the  meeting  was 
called  to  order  at  8  o'clock,  and  the  great  crowd  extended  blocks 
awp.y  from  the  building. 

Dkmoxstkation    1'X)r    Aitciimsiior    P\vi{lev. 

When  Archbishop  Farley  appeared  \\\,o\\  the  stage,  escorted 
by  ex-flustice  Morgan  J.  O'Brien,  a  wave  of  cheering  greeted 
him  that  lasted  for  the  better  part  of  ten  minutes.  Men  and 
women  arose  and  shouted  themselves  hoarse,  while  the  band 
played  the  Star  Spangled  Banner.  Then,  when  the  cheering 
had  all  but  subsided,  some  one  proposed  three  cheers  for  the 
Archbishop  of  New  York,  and  it  began  afresh  and  lasted  several 
minutes. 

Ivesolutions  were  adoi)te(l  unauiuiously  denouncing  the  (lovern- 
ment  of  France  for  its  stand  in  the  matter  of  enforcing  the  F^aw 
of  Separation  enacted  in  15)05,  upholding  the  French  Bishoj)s 
and  clergy  in  their  stand  against  the  law,  and  sympathizing  with 
the  Poj)e  in  his  refusal  to  compromise  with  the  French  Ministry 
upon  the  question  at  issue.  Before  the  meeting  adjourned  a 
motion  was  carried,  recpiesting  Archbishop  P'arley  to  send  a 
cablegram  to  Pope  Pius  X.  setting  forth  that  upward  of  2.''»,000 
Catholics  assembled  in  New  York  City  i)roteste(l  against  the 
acts  of  the  French  Ministry,  and  "extended  their  loving  sym- 
])athy  and  loyal  sui)|)ort"  to  him  "in  the  hour  of  his  dire 
distress." 

Ol  TBI  HST     OF     l*ATUIOTlSM. 

Every  reference  to  the  Pope  was  the  signal  foi-  prolonged 
cheers.  AN^Ikmi  in  reading  the  resolutions  John  G.  Agar  came  to 
the  pai-agrn])h  that  read:  "From  the  hearts  of  fi-ee  men  we  send 
an  ex])ressi()n  of  admiration  and  encouragement  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontirt'  for  his  brave  stand  and  fatherly  advice  to  the  Church 
of  France  in  its  distress  and  deprivation,"  the  enthusiasm  of  the 

53 


crowd  reached  its  climax.  The  entire  audience  aroi^e.  and  the 
band  struck  up  "Yankee  Doodle."  American  patriotism  wa.« 
conspicuous  throu<j:hout  the  meetin<i:.  A  great  iUig  hung  at  the 
back  of  the  sta<>e.  and  repeated  references  were  made  to  the 
United  States  as  the  "real  republic." 

A  very  large  number  of  priests  from  the  sevi'ral  dioceses  of 
the  State  were  i)resent  on  the  eventful  occasion.  Amon<^  the 
speakers  were  the  Hon.  ^lorgan  J.  OTirien.  former  l*residing 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  who  acted  as  chair- 
man at  the  meeting;  Judge  Fitzgerald  of  the  Sui)reme  Court,  U. 
S.;  Senator  Carter  of  Montana:  Congressman  Cioulden  of  Xew 
York:  Hon.  Joseph  F.  Daly;  Hon.  John  0.  Agar;  Hon.  John  J. 
Dehmey. 

The    IvEsoiATioNs   Adopted. 

llie  resolutions,  passed  unanimously,  follow: 

WiiKUEAs,  The  various  laws  enacted  in  France  in  recent  years, 
encroaching  upon  the  essential  rights  antl  liberties  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church,  such  as  the  violent  dissolution  of  the  religious  orders 
and  congregations,  the  treacherous  spoliation  of  all  their  proi)er- 
ties  devoted  to  religion,  teaching  and  charity,  have  resulted  in 
depriving  thousands  of  orphans,  the  aged,  the  sick,  the  infirm, 
the  helpless,  the  destitute  of  the  ministrations  of  their  most  de- 
voted and  self-sacrificing  guarilians,  helpers  and  comforters  in 
temporal  and  spiritual  needs,  and  in  the  eviction  from  their 
homes  of  1()(),00()  men  and  women,  loyal  citizens  of  the  French 
Republic,  whose  only  crime  was  their  devotion  to  their  re- 
ligious convictions,  thereby  throwing  them  upon  the  world  as 
outcasts  and  jiariahs;  and. 

VriiEKEAs,  This  series  of  attacks  upon  Christian  organization 
has  reached  its  culmination  in  tlie  so-called  Law  of  Separation, 
which  is  in  every  respect  a  law  of  domination  and  persecution, 
by  which  the  property  restored  by  the  Concordat  of  1801  to  the 
possession  of  its  rightful  owner,  the  Church,  as  well  as  all  the 
])ro])erty  donated  to  the  Church  by  the  faithful  from  that  time, 
has  been  secpiestered  and  confiscated  by  the  State:  by  which  the 
seminaries  have  been  closed,  and  the  youthful  aspirants  for  the 
priesthood  drafted  into  the  army  and  sent  to  the  life  of  the  bar- 
rack and  camp,  while  the  funds  intended  for  their  education 
and  supi)ort  have  been  turned  into  the  French  treasury;  by 
which  the  lil)erty  of  ])ublic  worship  has  been  denied  to  the 
faithfid  except  upon  conditions,  which  inxolve  a  repudiation  of 
the  Catholic  hierarchy  and  its  I'ightfid  government  of  the 
Church,  and  which  were  imposed  with  the  knowledge  that  tlu>y 
were  imi)ossible  of  acceptance:  and, 

WiiEui;.\H,  This  so-called  Law  of  Septiration  was  born  in  fraud 
and  deceit,  involving  the  inexcusabl(>  violation  of  a  solenni  com- 
pact l)etween  France  and  the  Holy  vSec.  wjiich  l;:'.s  stood  unchal- 
lenged for  over  one  hundred  yetirs  through  changing  nationnl 
vicissitudes  and  nine  constitutional  renovati<>ns.  iuNolviug  the 
rei)udiation  of  national  obligations  contracted  toward  the  Cath- 
olic Church,  and  accom|)anied  by  the  internatioiv'l  crime  of 
rifling  the  archives  of  the  accredited  re|)re>^entati\e  of  the  \'ati- 
can ;  and, 

54 


^^'iiEREAS,  This  unparalleled  injustice  was  carried  out  by  ene- 
mies of  Christ  and  Christianity  in  temporary  control  of  the  gov- 
ernmental authority  in  France,  under  the  pi'etense  of  accordin*; 
to  the  Churcli  the  same  freedom  which  is  guaranteed  to  it  in 
the  United  States,  Avhile  in  reality  the  i)iirp()se  and  etfect  was 
the  si)oliation  of  Church  property  and  the  domination  of  Church 
autonomy  to  such  an  extent  that  even  these  ruthless  despoilers 
were  compelled  to  placate  an  aroused  public  opinion  by  amend- 
ments to  the  law.  intended  to  convey  the  impression  of  liberal 
concessions  while  really  fasteninir  the  shackles  more  firmly  upon 
the  Church;  and. 

Whereas,  Such  enactments  and  the  manner  of  their  execution 
constitute  an  invasion  of  human  rights,  and  are  destructive  of  all 
liberty;  now,  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved^  That  in  upholding  their  right  to  freedom  of  public 
worship  according  to  conscience  the  Catholics  in  France  are  en- 
titled to  the  approbation  and  support  of  all  free  men ;  and 

That  we,  American  citizens,  living  in  a  land  where  all  churches 
are  truly  free — none  being  b}''  law  established  and  none  by  laAV 
oppressed — do  hereby  denounce  the  arbitrary  use  of  an  e[)hemeral 
l)ower  to  crush  out  the  right  of  French  citizens  to  worship  freely, 
according  to  their  conscience,  and  we  do  hereby  offer  to  the 
Catholics  in  France  assurance  of  our  hearty  sympathy  and  our 
hope  that  the  sacrifices  which  they  have  chosen  to  make  in  de- 
fense of  principle  may  soon  seciu'e  for  them  that  full  measure 
of  religious  liberty  which  is  guaranteed  to  all  people  in  the 
I'^nited  States  of  America,  and 

That  we  appreciate  the  attitude  of  the  French  Bishops  and  clergy 
who  are  prepared  to  sacrifi(;e  ever}'  earthly  advantage  rather  than 
submit  to  an  injustice  which  imperils  the  religious  security  of 
their  jjeople;  we  commend  their  unity  in  the  cause  of  right  and 
their  loyalty  to  the  Church,  wherein  they  set  an  example  which 
will  hereafter  sustain  others  suffering  from  des])otic  interference 
with  the  liberty  of  conscience  and  the  freedom  of  man  to  worship 
the  Almighty  in  his  own  way,  making  sacrifices  which  will  prove 
a  glory  to  religion  and  in  the  end  a  blessing  to  their  beloved 
France. 

From  the  hearts  of  free  men  we  send  an  expression  of  admira- 
tion and  encouragement  to  the  SoA'ereign  Pontiff  for  his  brave 
-tand  and  fatherly  advice  to  the  Church  of  France  in  its  distress 
and  deprivation;  and  we  urge  the  French  people  to  support  vig- 
orously the  efforts  of  their  Bishops  for  the  welfare  of  their  oAvn 
republic  and  the  cause  of  freedom  everj^where. 

ARCiimsiTOP   Farley's    Address. 

At  this  late  hour  I  feel  that  it  would  I)e  ungenerous  on  my 
part  to  detain  you  with  a  long  address,  esj)ecially  as  the  whole 
case  between  the  Government  of  France  and  the  Church  in  that 
ccmntry  has  been  so  clearly  and  so  forcibly  set  forth  l)y  the  elo- 
quent speakers  whom  j'ou  had  the  good  fortune  to  listen  to  this 
evening. 

We  have  a  right  to  feel,  therefore,  that  not  only  Catholics  l)ut 
all  the  Christian  people  of  this  great  nation  are  Avith  us  in  spirit 
and  unite  their  sympathy  with  ours  as  we  send  it  across  the 

55 


ocean  to  our  suffering  bicthivn.  for  we  are  but  performing  an 
act  of  coiuuion  huiiiauity.  not  to  say  of  Christian  charity. 

I  thank  you.  uiy  dear  fi-ien<ls.  from  my  inmost  heart  for  your 
generous  response  to  the  invitation  which  has  brought  us  to- 
getlier  in  such  vast  numbers.  I  tliank  you  for  the  enthusiasm 
with  which  you  have  received  the  true  statement  of  tlie  case 
between  the  Holy  See  and  France,  so  ably  presented  to  you  by 
the  distinguished  speakers  of  this  evening.  The  acclaim  with 
which  you  have  received  the  i-esolutions  just  read  as  the  outcome 
of  (his  meeting,  and  as  the  exi>ression  of  the  Catholic  citizens  of 
this  great  city,  is  a  condemnation  of  the  first  persecution  of  the 
Church  in  the  twentieth  century. 

A.  M.  D.  G. 


56 


*' Through  many  tribulations  we  must  enter  into 
the  Kingdom  of  God.'* 


Acts  XIV.  21. 


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